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GUIDE: Networking Windows with OS X

Kelmon said:
...are the aliases to computers that show up in the Finder's Network folder refreshable? I can connect to my various PCs at home and at work without trouble using the Connect To Server method, but I'd always had problems browsing the network using the Finder under Jaguar and Panther. When I installed Tiger last week I was presently pleased to that network browsing was much better and that I could navigate to my desire PC, view a list of the available shares, and logon to the selected share. Great. The problem is now is that the aliases now seem to be out-of-date and I get the message that "The alias <alias name> could not be opened because the original item could not be found" followed be a really "useful" opportunity to search for the original item on my local disk. I can only assume that the Network aliases are now out-of-date (I guess the Mac should be resolving computer names via DNS so that the IP address should be irrelevant) and that they need to be refreshed somehow so that they point to the correct IP addresses.

As noted earlier in the post, I can connect so this isn't really a problem (hell, the Connect to Server method is faster) but it has been bugging me. Any ideas?
Click to expand...


This is the question I was going to ask. The "Connect to server" method has worked flawlessly for me. But what about taking advantage of the SMB network browsing that was supposed to work in Panther and didn't. It's also supposed to work even better with Tiger but it doesn't. Shouldn't we be able to browse the network and see everything? If you go to network there are no icons for shared folders or computers. The only thing I see is a server folder sort of and then inside of that is a .local of my Mac. I can see no windows pcs anywhere.
 
Has any one been able to connect to a PC running XP Professional from a Mac running 10.4.1? ‘cause I’m about ready to throw my powerbook out the window.

Depending on what I fiddle with I either get an error -36 before the password prompt. Or I get the password prompt and then I enter my windows username and password and get an error that they are not correct. Which I know they are, because I try it several times to make sure I’m not making any typo’s and I can log into my PC just fine.

Or an even more bizarre error, the login prompt will not popup but it will tell me that the user name and password are incorrect without even entering them. In other words I enter smb://ipaddress/sharefolder and I get an error that the username and password are incorrect. I found this:

http://www.macwindows.com/

gotta scroll half way down. And this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301580

I tried this fix from apple, but the terminal would come back and say that the file did not exist and could not be saved. (at step 8)

I just want to know if anyone running 10.4.1 has been able to connect to windows xp and please explain how to do it. Thanks for any help.
 
bpdp said:
Has any one been able to connect to a PC running XP Professional from a Mac running 10.4.1? ‘cause I’m about ready to throw my powerbook out the window.

Depending on what I fiddle with I either get an error -36 before the password prompt. Or I get the password prompt and then I enter my windows username and password and get an error that they are not correct. Which I know they are, because I try it several times to make sure I’m not making any typo’s and I can log into my PC just fine.

Or an even more bizarre error, the login prompt will not popup but it will tell me that the user name and password are incorrect without even entering them. In other words I enter smb://ipaddress/sharefolder and I get an error that the username and password are incorrect. I found this:

http://www.macwindows.com/

gotta scroll half way down. And this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301580

I tried this fix from apple, but the terminal would come back and say that the file did not exist and could not be saved. (at step 8)

I just want to know if anyone running 10.4.1 has been able to connect to windows xp and please explain how to do it. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
I connect to my dad's pc all the time with 10.4.1. It works the same way as it did with 10.3. Just follow the guidelines in this thread, and you'll be fine.
 
Thanks dshartis, that gives me a lot of hope. I have just been reading that so many people have been having a hard time with plain text and encrypted passwords. Which I think is my problem too.

I feel like I’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work. (Though I do get different errors). I’ve been working on it for a week about 6 hours a day, even called apple care and they were no help. But whatever.

At least I know someone has gotten it to work. Thanks a lot.
 
bpdp said:
Thanks dshartis, that gives me a lot of hope. I have just been reading that so many people have been having a hard time with plain text and encrypted passwords. Which I think is my problem too.

I feel like I’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work. (Though I do get different errors). I’ve been working on it for a week about 6 hours a day, even called apple care and they were no help. But whatever.

At least I know someone has gotten it to work. Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...
I had been connecting to my dad's pc all the time with 10.3. When I upgraded to 10.4, I didn't have to chane any of my settings. It took a little whie for me to get it working initially with 10.3, but once I got the basics, it was really easy from there. This thread is the probably the best tutorial on how to go about doing this. I found it very helpful.
 
Hi all, first post.

An excellent thread idea, thank you OP. Worked perfectly at getting my Win XP Pro box to see my mac mini, but getting the mini to see the XP computer was a bit more difficult.

At first I kept getting that annoying -36 error like bpdp and some others. I tried a ton of things to fix it, and here's what finally worked:

1. Go to "Network Connections" (start, control panel, etc to get there).
2. Find your network connection (the one that's lit up with blue screens)
3. Right click it, select properties
4. Make sure the "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" box is checked!
A lot of security sites instruct users to turn this off, in my case I wasn't networking this current PC so I'd turned it off a long time ago.

Well that got me to connect and get to the login screen, but I still couldn't log in! I got a -43 error, or sometimes a bad password error (user/password were always correct, and I do have passwords on my account names).

Well one important thing to note here that wasn't clear in the OP is that on your "Computer Name" screen the one to use is the "Full computer name" (without the period at the end) and NOT the "Computer description".

Even so I simply couldn't get it to work for me, but I instead went to network on the mac, and to my surprise found the domain and PC listed on it, and was able to login and connect from there!

Hope this helps!
 
error code -56 in mac-windows network

Hi, can anyone help me with my problem. My Ibook cannot connect to windows2000 server. I am having this error code -56, "...data could not be read or written...

When I connect to server smb://192.168.x.x it will prompt me the drive on the server and when I click on the drive, it will prompt for an authentication followed by the error above. What should I do. Thanks
 
error -36 on windows-mac network

Hi, can anyone help me with my problem. My Ibook cannot connect to windows2000 server. I am having this error code -56, "...data could not be read or written...

When I connect to server smb://192.168.x.x it will prompt me the drive on the server and when I click on the drive, it will prompt for an authentication followed by the error above. What should I do. Thanks
 
external drives/OS X/WinXP

Well now that you have figured it out, could you possibly tell the rest of us how to do it please?

shwa96 said:
I figured it out. I now have full access to everything on my mac, including the external drive. :D So, I guess just disregard my question. Not that anyone was in a hurry to respond...
Click to expand...
 
Serious Problem - Cause Unknown

I followed this guide and got it to work, then I put my computer to sleep because I had to go somewhere. When I came back and woke up my computer, something must have happened to my computer, because I started up Adium and it acted like I started it for the first time, asking for a screen name and all. iChat did the same. Just about every other application did the same too. In Safari ALL my bookmarks were erased! :mad: :eek: In iTunes, I thought all my library was gone, but I found it still in the Music > iTunes Library - Thank the Lord. All my Address Book contacts were erased. :( But all my files are still there like folders and stuff on my desktop. Dashboard is the same as before, nothing changed. What could possibly have done this? :confused: Certainly not a virus, right? Is there any way I can get this information back like I did with the iTunes Library, maybe hidden somewhere?

The only positive thing is that my computer seems to be going a lot faster - system and internet wise. :(
 
i am being driven mad by xp sp2 trying to get my pc and g4 powermac (with 10.3.5) talking to each other again.

i somehow managed to have them communicating happily (connected directly by a cross-over cable) for many many months until the pc recently started misbehaving, became inaccessible and finally needed total reinstallation. Bottom line is that what ever configuration i had that got the network running is now lost and i am back at square one.

I have norton personal firewall on and i think it is the firewall that is preventing the stuff that the guide told me to from working. I cant ping between the two machines. on the "home networking" tab of Personal Firewall i put the ip address i got from my mac and its subnet mask into the "trusted zone". File and printer sharing are enabled in xp. The windows firewall is disabled, and i'd prefer to keep the norton one active.

ive looked at this guide and also http://bellsouthpwp2.net/j/o/joelshoemaker/computer/mac/wxpfs.html and neither instructions seem to work this time.

someone please help me before i bring a hammer to the pc!
 
McApple said:
I followed this guide and got it to work, then I put my computer to sleep because I had to go somewhere. When I came back and woke up my computer, something must have happened to my computer, because I started up Adium and it acted like I started it for the first time...
Click to expand...
Have you tried to repair permissions? It seems like most apps are not able to access their preferences. Repairing the permissions would fix the "Preferences" folder in your Library.

Edit: In case you dont know, its easy to do: Open Applications/Utilities and then choose Disk Utility. Select your system harddisk and click repair permissions.

If there are quite some things being listed, the chance is good that it has been fixed :)
 
I can't seem to get my PC to be able to access files on my Mac (but I can get my Mac to access files on my PC). On my Pc, i will run:

\\ip address\shortname in osx

and when it prompts me for my username and password, it always fails. then, it also changes from:

username:
password:

to

username: DAD\
password:

anyone help me please? i'd love to get this to work.
 
I suggest you check out the free software "Share Points" for Mac OS X. Its a preferences pane which you can set up to share folders to Windows computers too. And, make sure you are in the right "Workgroup", I think this has been discussed before here.
Share Points works flawlessly for me, and all Windows users in my network were able to access my shared files! :)
 
i am pretty sure the problem is with xp sp2. To recap, i had a cross-over cable connected from the back of this pc to my g4 powermac - no routers, enabled sharing on both and it worked fine. Then SP2 was installed on this now the 2 machines cant talk to each other, neither can the mac use the internet like it could before.

i found a bunch of threads that describe the problem with a few solutions, none of which have worked for me.

http://www.pchell.com/support/limitedconnectivity.shtml
http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm
http://www.thetechguide.com/forum/i...techguide.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10926
http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=59149

somebody out there MUST have got SP2 working with their networked macs?
If you're out there, SOS!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!
 
Ok I've went through and did everything and I can connect to my Mac through my PC but I can't access my PC from my Mac. I'm getting the problem: Could not connect to server because the name or password is not correct. Any help

My windows does have a login btw :D
 
THANK YOU for this guide. I've got my ibook and pc networked now :)

I don't think I would have done it without the help from this thread.
 
Does anyone know how to network a PC and Mac over firewire. The Apple Devlopler connection says that it is possible, that IP over firewire is enabled. Any help would be appreciated as it would be a much faster transfer.
 
Problems connecting

Hi edisignuk, I have a problem connecting my Pc with my MAC, i followed every step but in both computers appears the same message when I try to connect: that it can`t connect because it doesn`t find the network. What is the problem?
thanks
 
connecting a mac to a pc

first and fore most remember you have to be in the same work group, yes apple has a program that allows you to switch work groups. search google for how to change the mac workgroup to match your windows workgroup. turn off all firewalls. I have tried lots of them and I couldn't connect with not a one to my mac. don't create a share on your pc in "my documents" create on the c: drive itself. then share that folder completely and let users able to change it.

go to networks under my computer on apple give it a few minutes to update or restart both machines. both should work if u have switch. now if it a password window pops up with a password put your windows one in. and it will mount to your desktop

flir67------------
 
I have followed the guide (which is excellent) My PC can access my Mac's folders but when i click finder, connect to server and log in (i have tried my windows log in and my macos login) it says:

The operation cannot be completed because of one or more required items cannot be found (error code -43)

Does anyone know what this means?

Many Thanks
 
edesignuk said:
No problem :)

Better yet just map a newtwork drive (just like you would a normal windows share) and set it to reconnect on login ;)
Click to expand...

Is there a way to map a drive FROM Mac (Tiger OS X) to a windows PC? :confused:
 
marknicholls said:
I have followed the guide (which is excellent) My PC can access my Mac's folders but when i click finder, connect to server and log in (i have tried my windows log in and my macos login) it says:

The operation cannot be completed because of one or more required items cannot be found (error code -43)

Does anyone know what this means?

Many Thanks
Click to expand...

IN the windows folder that you are sharing, right click it and select Sharing and Securty. Most people just open i via properties but don't.
On the bottom of the tab, there may be a button called "NEW SHARE" if there is, then give the Mac user rights to the folder.
Re-connect via the SMB:// thingy

It worked for me. Now I want to be able to map it so that I don't have to do it everytime I start the Mac.
 
What about Adding a mac to a Windows Domain?? Using the Active Directory thing in OSX

edesignuk;

I had spent today hours on the end looking for something like you explained....

This will give me something to start...

I wanted to ask if you know how to specifically add a Mac to a Domain Controller that uses Active Directory. Do you think you can post a HowTo or a Tutorial on how to add a MAc to a Domain in Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2003 SBS?

I'll really appreciate whatever help you can post;

Thanks!!

MacGilly
 
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