Printing to Windows Vista and file sharing both ways.

[åidån]

Hey all,

Just bought my first Mac, and all is well except sharing issues. I have been using OS X for all of two days so far, so please excuse me if I ask really stupid questions.

I know this topic has been covered plenty of times already, and I have searched and tried the solutions from plenty of different threads, and other websites. None seem to work for me.

Basically I live in a Windows world, all the other computers at Home, and the computers at work are all PC's on either XP, or Vista. So I really need to be able to swap files and share printers.

I have tried to set up the shared printer through CUPS and I received; "Unable to connect to CIFS host after (tried 3 times)". I can't see my shared Windows computers in Finder, and I can't see my Mac in Windows Network Center.

Any help in resolving this issue would be great,

Thanks in advance.

 

[DarkJaye]

I've never tried to use a Windows shared printer from within OSX before, so I can't help you on that front.

However, with regards to file sharing, first make sure that your Mac is set to share files using the SMB protocol, otherwise Windows won't be able to see the shared files.

To do this, go into the Sharing pref pane, go to the File Sharing section, and click Options. There should be an SMB checkbox in there that must be checked, as well as a checkbox in front of your user that you need to check off (if they aren't already)

As for the computers showing up in Windows Explorer / Finder, I've found both to be a bit flaky. If the sharing is setup on both machines properly, most of the time I find it's easier just to connect directly via IP.

On your Mac, within Finder, navigate to Go -> Connect To Server

You can then type in smb://ipaddress where ipaddress is the IP of the windows machine you want to connect to. It should connect that way.

Likewise, in Windows, open up an explorer window, and in the location bar type in \\ipaddress where ipaddress is the IP of the Mac. If file sharing is setup properly it should connect to the Mac's shared files.

 

[angelwatt]

I know you've said you tried other solutions, but that doesn't tell us what specifically you have tried. Have you taken a look at Mac Rumor's guide for Networking Windows with Mac OS X? It covers file and print sharing.

 

[åidån]

I've never tried to use a Windows shared printer from within OSX before, so I can't help you on that front.

However, with regards to file sharing, first make sure that your Mac is set to share files using the SMB protocol, otherwise Windows won't be able to see the shared files.

To do this, go into the Sharing pref pane, go to the File Sharing section, and click Options. There should be an SMB checkbox in there that must be checked, as well as a checkbox in front of your user that you need to check off (if they aren't already)

As for the computers showing up in Windows Explorer / Finder, I've found both to be a bit flaky. If the sharing is setup on both machines properly, most of the time I find it's easier just to connect directly via IP.

On your Mac, within Finder, navigate to Go -> Connect To Server

You can then type in smb://ipaddress where ipaddress is the IP of the windows machine you want to connect to. It should connect that way.

Likewise, in Windows, open up an explorer window, and in the location bar type in \\ipaddress where ipaddress is the IP of the Mac. If file sharing is setup properly it should connect to the Mac's shared files.

Awesome, works if Norton 360 is disabled. I'll have to have a play round with Norton to see if it can be running and allow connections from my Mac.

Now to see if Norton was stopping the printer sharing as well.

 

[åidån]

All Go! It was stupid Norton stopping it the whole time. Added a rule to allow all connections from my MacBook's I.P. address, and the it was ready to find the printer through System Preferences/Printers/Windows. Previously when I selected windows all I would get was "workgroup" and it would go no further once clicked. I'm all happy now