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GUIDE: Networking Windows with OS X

Ok, I have tried and tried again, but it wont work.

I have a Win XP, and I want to connect it to a Mac OS X 10.2.8

The connection is active, I have on the toolbar of my windows, "Local area connection, connected at 100mbps" and its connected to *something* cause its sending stuff, but nothing receive. Theory is, that the connection is working, but I cant use it.

They are connected directly Via a ethetnet crossover cable. I have tried everything in this guide a 100 times, and also tried various other guides, all the same pretty much, and nothing works!

WHAT DO I DO? Do I NEED a router? prehaps that would make my life so much easier.

Please Help, im loosing sleep over this! (no, really, I am...)
 
edesignuk said:
OK, this question comes up all the time, "How do I share files between my Mac and PC". So, here is the answer. I'm hoping we can make this "Sticky" and save everyone time :)
I think I have remembered everything, if you think there is somthing I've missed then please post and let me know.

Networking Windows (2000/XP/2003*) with Mac OS X (10.3/10.4)

Information you will need to know

• The IP Address of your PC (Start > Run > CMD {return} > “ipconfig” {return})
• The IP Address of your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Terminal {Run app} > for ethernet connection “ipconfig getifaddr en0” {return} or for wireless "ipconfig getifaddr en1" {return})
• The workgroup the PC is in (Right click on My Computer, select Properties, and select the Computer Name tab)

System Configuration

It is important that the account you log in with on your XP system has a password set, if it does not you will not be able to login to your Windows share from OS X.

You need to put your Mac in the same workgroup as your Windows PC. To do this open “Directory Access” (Applications > Utilities > Directory Access). Click on the padlock in the bottom left corner to make changes; you will be prompted for your password. If “SMB” is not ticked off, then tick it off. Select “SMB” and hit the “Configure…” button. Now enter the name of your Windows workgroup. In my case the name is “AD”.

mac_directory_access.png


Setting up the PC to share files

You need to create and share a folder on your PC that you will then access from your Mac.
To do this create a folder (or select and existing one) right click on it from Windows Explorer and select “Properties”. Select the “Sharing” tab and share out the folder. I’d recommend you use a one word name for the share. For example “mac”, not “Apple Mac Share”, it just narrows the risk of complications.

Windows_shared_folder.jpg


Setting up the Mac to share files

Open “System Preferences” (Applications > System Preferences). Go to “Sharing” under “Internet & Network”, and tick off “Windows Sharing”, and if it doesn’t start by itself, click “Start”. This will share out your entire home folder.

mac_sharing.png


If You're running Tiger (10.4), you will also need to click the "Accounts" button and tick off the box next to your account name so that OS X knows to share out your particular home folder.

mac_enable_acc_share.jpg


Accessing your Mac from your PC

Click “Start > Run” and enter “\\192.168.1.2\edesignuk”, replacing the IP address with the IP address of your Mac, and “edesignuk” with the short user name of your account in OS X. When asked to authenticate enter your Mac accounts short user name and password. All being well you should now be able to see you entire home folder on your OS X system. You can also map this share like you would any other Windows network share so that it is accessible from a drive letter.

Accessing your PC from your Mac

To mount a Windows share on your Mac, click on your desktop so that Finder is the active application, from the Finder menu go to “Go > Connect to Server”. In the “Server Address” field enter “smb://192.168.1.3/mac”, replacing the IP address with the IP address of your PC, and “mac” with the name of the Windows share you created earlier.

mac_connect_to_server.png


When asked to authenticate enter the name of your PC in “Workgroup/Domain” (Unless your PC is part of a domain and your PC account is held on a domain controller, in which case enter the domain that you normally log on to Windows with). For “Username” and “Password” enter the username and password which you use to log on to your Windows machine with. Click ok and your shared folder should be mounted as a network drive on your desktop.

mac_connect_to_pc.png


*Windows Server 2003 Authentication

By deafult Windows Server 2003 will try to encrypt everything sent to and from it. With this enabled you will not be able to log in to the share from your Mac.
To fix this there are a couple of options.
Case 1, your server is nothing more than a regular file server. In this case open up regedit (Start > Run > "regedit" {return}), and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ LanManServer \ Parameter \ RequireSecuritySignature, and set it's value to "0".
Case 2, your server is also a Domain Controller. In which case you need to open the DC's Security Policy (Administrative Tools > Domain Controller Security Policy). Navigate to Local Policies > Secuiry Options, and disable "Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always)" & "Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (if client agrees)". Reboot your sever, and you should be good to go.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it just be simpler to spill coffee in the PC, and then tell the boss a new Mac is in order?
 
No, once you get it working, its great. Only one question

How do I share the whole hard drive, like I have for the PC (by the hard task of right clicking on the C: and going to props, then sharing, then share it.) but it just dont work the same was as on a PC those macs, and thats the problem, I dont know how to do it.

Any ideas?
 
Thanks for the great guide, i do have one question though;

I set things up so my second hard drive from my pc can be shared in my network (1 powerbook 1 pc on airport express). Strange thing is i don't need to enter a password (it asks for one but it doesn't matter if i leave it blank) when i connect from my powerbook (10.3.9) to my PC (win XP). That leaves me wondering if everyone on my street can access my hardrive now or is it protected by my WEP password from my Airport Express?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
ok guys i need help with this one....


ive tried everything on that guide and when it comes to using 'connect to server' it finds the pc.....but the name and password that i use on my pc wont let me in.....any ideas?
 
edesignuk said:
*Windows Server 2003 Authentication

By deafult Windows Server 2003 will try to encrypt everything sent to and from it. With this enabled you will not be able to log in to the share from your Mac.
To fix this there are a couple of options.
Case 1, your server is nothing more than a regular file server. In this case open up regedit (Start > Run > "regedit" {return}), and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ LanManServer \ Parameter \ RequireSecuritySignature, and set it's value to "0".
Case 2, your server is also a Domain Controller. In which case you need to open the DC's Security Policy (Administrative Tools > Domain Controller Security Policy). Navigate to Local Policies > Secuiry Options, and disable "Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always)" & "Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (if client agrees)". Reboot your sever, and you should be good to go.
Click to expand...

THIS just saved my ass. A huge THANKS for posting this, edesignuk. I realize it's old, but I had no luck anywhere trying to figure out why I couldn't login to our Windows 2003 Server from my iMac. This is awesome. Glad I knew how to use regedit! lol
 
Domain coomunication

Can anybody help me set up communication between pc's and macs. Currently all our pc's are members of a Windows server 2000 domain but the macs in design arnt. I can ping the macs and the macs can access network drives on the servers. I need to be able to access the macs shares from a server so i can then back up their work. The servers are obviously members of the domain and not a workgroup so show can i go about doing this. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
 
wierd mac>pc connection problems

I've been working on this mac>pc connection problem on and off for a few months now. I had finally given up and just pushed anything from the pc to the mac because I had no problem with that connection. But I just got a new MacBook Pro and I'd like to have complete access between my two computers.
I have one windows desktop (wired) and one MacBook Pro laptop (running 10.4.7, wireless) on a netgear router. I have my home folder mapped on my windows box (windows xp). The windows machine can ping the mac, I can access my home folder on the mac from the pc. That part was easy.
I followed all the instructions posted at the beginning of this thread. I have filesharing enabled, netbios over tcp/ip, static ip address, same workgroup, allowed remote connections to the pc, server is up and running, one drive and a folder are shared (I tried both to see if it made any difference). My mac can see the windows machine in Finder, under the workgroup both are on. But when I click the Connect button, I get the "alias could not be found" error. When I try to ping the windows machine through Terminal, it can't see it at all. smbclient can see the windows machine, but none of the shares. And if I restart the windows machine, and leave ping running on the mac, at the login prompt for the windows machine, the mac can ping it exactly three times. If I log in before the three pings are successful, then the mac can only ping the windows machine one or two times (depending on how fast I log in). But even if I let the login screen sit, it never has more than three successful pings. And if I just log out of the windows machine (instead of restarting it), the mac can't ping it at all.
I'm completely stumped on this one. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
 
smb.conf?

edesignuk said:
Yes, but that will envolve manually editing your smb.conf, something that I don't know much about, sorry.
Click to expand...

Hi all,

Apologies for bringing this old thread back out again but I was wondering if anyone could tell me... Is it possible to tweak the Windows File Sharing under OSX 10.4 so that I can share an entire Hard Drive?

I have recently installed a 250GB drive in my Mac for backing up all machines on the network. However one of the machines is a PC and so I cannot find a way of sharing the drive so that the PC can gain access to it for backup. Can anyone help please? :confused: Thanks!

:-Joe :D
 
Okay, I've hit a snag. I've been asked to help a friend connect some Macs to a Windows 2003 server for what I think is basic file sharing. The server has some serious security settings on it (the guy who original set it up is now in hospital with a bout of paranoia, among other things) and I can connect just fine, but each day it resets the RequireSecuritySignature back to 1. I've been told I have free reign over this server and can strip back the ridiculously high security measures, but I can't for the life of me work out how to stop this figure resetting each morning. When the number is zero, everything works well. Why does it keep changing back to one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :eek:



I really love Macs!
 
mad jew said:
Okay, I've hit a snag. I've been asked to help a friend connect some Macs to a Windows 2003 server for what I think is basic file sharing. The server has some serious security settings on it (the guy who original set it up is now in hospital with a bout of paranoia, among other things) and I can connect just fine, but each day it resets the RequireSecuritySignature back to 1. I've been told I have free reign over this server and can strip back the ridiculously high security measures, but I can't for the life of me work out how to stop this figure resetting each morning. When the number is zero, everything works well. Why does it keep changing back to one?
Click to expand...

Is this part of a domain? If its check to be sure there is not a group policy that is changing. I will keep thinking on this one......O and one other they might have done is check the scheduled tasks if this guy was really crazy he might have scripted it.
 
Thanks trainguy77. Yeah, it's part of a domain (it's the controller) but I wouldn't know how to check the group policy changes. :eek:

I don't think it has been scripted because the people who set it up didn't really seem to know what they were doing. It'd be lovely to start afresh but sadly I can't. :(
 
mad jew said:
Thanks trainguy77. Yeah, it's part of a domain (it's the controller) but I wouldn't know how to check the group policy changes. :eek:

I don't think it has been scripted because the people who set it up didn't really seem to know what they were doing. It'd be lovely to start afresh but sadly I can't. :(
Click to expand...

Ok well thats a start. I have a feeling this could be a group policy thing. (fires up IPSecuritas and remote desktop) Now that I am logged into a dc now go start>administrative tools>Active Directory users and computer then at the root of the domain right click properties group policy then open the group policy management(if its installed otherwise i can't remember what the old thing looks like) That should get your started your looking for something that modifies the registry if i am not mistaken. I have to go parents are bugging me. So if you need more help maybe we could talk online as there is a bunch of things we could check.
 
MAC machine role in Active Directory shows up as a DOMAIN CONTROLLER

After joining MAC OS X on a Windows 2003 Domain the MAC machine role shows up as a domain controller. I have looked for the last two days on how to fix this... does anyone know how?
 
If I open the Users and Computers MMC and do search in Active Directory for Computers and search for that client the Machine role that is returned says it is a Domain Controller.
 
I just checked and I get the same things on all my Macs in AD.
I can assure you, they are NOT DCs.

Looks like a bug in the search feature. If you double click on the item from the search, it's "Role" is listed as "Workstation or server", the same as PC clients.
 
All my searching I found reference to a bug in the MMC, but I can't find a KB article that references the bug, or the fix. I figured the same as I saw no events when that client went offline.


-Nate
 
network in mac os x

Hi... I never had this problem before but this is the deal ever since I came home from school...

I can access my three windows XP PC's if I "Go --> Connect to server" in Mac OS X... However, when I click on my Macintosh HD drive on the Mac OS X desktop and I click to view my network in the left hand pane, there is NOTHING in the network. I am in the same workgroup, obviously, because I can access drives on my windows pc's from the mac and I can access mac shares from the windows pcs... Nothing shows up in the network folder on Mac OS X though. Help. Thanks
 
Mac OS 9 and prior always superior networking to Windows. Now, ever since OS X came out the Macintosh has had terrible networking. Why has Apple let this go on for so long? I hope it's fixed in Leopard because I don't want to be stuck in the networking-dark-ages for another 2 years waiting for the next upgrade to OS X. Come on, Apple! Fix it already!
 
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