How do you "see" other network computers?

[stainlessliquid]

I can manually connect to Windows computers by typing in the smb://name address at work on the network but theres a lot of computers, how do I auto connect to the network and see a list of everyones computers like you can on Windows?

You also cant see the mac on the list of computers on a Windows machine, you have to type in the IP which sucks, how do I make it visible?

 

[jonessodarally]

I can manually connect to Windows computers by typing in the smb://name address at work on the network but theres a lot of computers, how do I auto connect to the network and see a list of everyones computers like you can on Windows?

You also cant see the mac on the list of computers on a Windows machine, you have to type in the IP which sucks, how do I make it visible?

for seeing all the other computers, just open a finder window. in the menu bar, go to Go> Network. Should be what youre looking for.

As for the other. Go into your Sys Prefs and go to the Sharing settings. Make sure File Sharing is checked.

 

[belvdr]

I'd read this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102878

I'm not going to retype it all here.

 

[r0k]

I'd read this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102878

I'm not going to retype it all here.

And a good thing you decided not to type it all here. It appears to do nothing to answer the OP question. It's a M$ page intended to help Windows 2000 and Windows NT users with the windows computer browser. There appears to be no help for anybody using OS X from the link you provided.

Sometimes I see windows shares in network and sometimes I don't. But I never have trouble connecting using smb://computername. I then get a list of smb (windows) shares to connect. More help is available at Apple's support pages here.

 

[stainlessliquid]

I would like to avoid using "connect to server" since there are a lot of computers and I dont want to have to type out each computer name when I want to access it.

Isnt there a way to go to Network and see all computers connected to the network like you can in Windows?

 

[belvdr]

And a good thing you decided not to type it all here. It appears to do nothing to answer the OP question. It's a M$ page intended to help Windows 2000 and Windows NT users with the windows computer browser. There appears to be no help for anybody using OS X from the link you provided.

Sometimes I see windows shares in network and sometimes I don't. But I never have trouble connecting using smb://computername. I then get a list of smb (windows) shares to connect. More help is available at Apple's support pages here.

It's meant to provide an understanding of how LAN browsing works using Microsoft network services.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to do this for certain.

 

[angelwatt]

Mac Rumors has a pretty good guide that might be of help to you.
Mac Rumors Guide: Networking Windows with Mac OS X

 

[r0k]

I would like to avoid using "connect to server" since there are a lot of computers and I dont want to have to type out each computer name when I want to access it.

Isnt there a way to go to Network and see all computers connected to the network like you can in Windows?

I agree with angelwatt's recommendation to read the guide here at macrumors. Here are a few more thoughts...

Double check your file sharing and firewall settings
If you have SMB file sharing selected in your preferences, OS X does a lot better at windows file sharing in general. This includes leaving the appropriate ports open in your firewall. If you turn on your OS X firewall but have windows file sharing enabled first, you should still be able to see SMB shares. However, if you switch on your OS X firewall on its highest setting (the one in the middle), before enabling SMB file sharing, you will very likely lose the ability to see windows shares and you might not even be able to connect to them using smb:servername/sharename.

Use Finder or Dock Shortcuts
You can create a shortcut to absolutely anything in finder. Just drag it to the lower left area of any finder window and it will be there from now on. The same is true of the dock. I bet you could have a stack on the dock with all your network shares listed in it.

Time Machine Goofiness
The only down side is this might fool time machine into trying to back up network drives. I know, TM is cheesy for doing such a stoopid thing. But Apple second level support asked me to delete all my network shortcuts I had lying around in my finder when I was having problems with TM. TM is supposed to automatically put any network drives you have mounted into it's exclude list but sometimes it fails to do this.

IP address/bonjour goofiness
Also, be sure to use static ip's for servers. You can create ip reservations in airport extreme, time capsule, and most routers. This avoids confusion that results from a machine's ip address changing after finder has seen it once. I have this problem quite a bit with desktop sharing which is supposed to use bonjour and always work, etc. But often I find machines listed with the wrong name because their ip changed. For this reason, I set my ip leases to a very long time. More recently, after a suggestion from Apple support, I've begun creating ip reservations for machines I don't want to keep jumping around so I can eventually go back to the default 4 hour lease.

 

[larkost]

There are three possibilities, depending on your network:

1) Set your "WINS" network to the proper Workgroup (Network->interface->Advanced->WINS)

2) Add the proper "WINS" servers to your computer (same place as above)

3) Join the ActiveDirectory domain that is vending this information out

 

[stainlessliquid]

The machine is brand new so all settings are set to default with the exception of file sharing and SMB turned on. The firewall is set to allow all connections.

Mac Rumors has a pretty good guide that might be of help to you.
Mac Rumors Guide: Networking Windows with Mac OS X

That guide is for Tiger, theres no more "Directory Access" in Leopard, but there is a Directory Utility with different options (none related to SMB)

There are three possibilities, depending on your network:

1) Set your "WINS" network to the proper Workgroup (Network->interface->Advanced->WINS)

2) Add the proper "WINS" servers to your computer (same place as above)

3) Join the ActiveDirectory domain that is vending this information out

I cant figure out how to add the WINS server, where are you supposed to get that IP?

Im also getting the stupid "self assigned IP" crap so I cant access the internet, I dont know if that has anything to do with it. Im on the network though because I can manually access shared folders by typing in the address.