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problem with network finding windows machine

C

Col127

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 13, 2003
286
4
i was wondering if people were able to see their windows machines on the network from the finder window when clicking on network. mine doesn't list any thing, except for my g4.

panther doesn't seem to even find the servers when clicking on connect to server. i have to manually type in the IP address now in order for it to find my windows machine. i didn't have this problem in jaguar. if i went to connect to server, it'd find my machine. can anyone offer any help?
 
Re: problem with network finding windows machine

Originally posted by Col127
i was wondering if people were able to see their windows machines on the network from the finder window when clicking on network. mine doesn't list any thing, except for my g4.

panther doesn't seem to even find the servers when clicking on connect to server. i have to manually type in the IP address now in order for it to find my windows machine. i didn't have this problem in jaguar. if i went to connect to server, it'd find my machine. can anyone offer any help?
Click to expand...

Blow up the Windows machines. Just kidding. :) I kernel panic when I try to connect, even when they show up in the connect to computer... so I just don't anymore. I think it has something to do with my room mates firewall(s) PC users can be more paranoid than mac users.
 
well the thing is, apple boasts about how panther is good for connecting to windows machines.. but it doesn't work for me??
 
I can't find it either..is it something that we're suppose to do on the mac or is it something about the windows machine?
 
Just a small note but both machines (windoz and Panther) need to have file sharing turned on.
 
You need to make sure both machines are in the same Workgroup. Panther defaults to being in the "WORKGROUP" workgroup. If that isn't what your Windows machine is in, you'll need to change the Mac's workgroup with /Applications/Utilities/Directory Access. Authenticate, click on SMB, then click the Configure button. Change the workgroup to whatever you need. After that, you should be able to see your windows shares in the Finder under Network.

By the way, you don't need file sharing enabled on the Mac to see Windows shared directories.
 
So, does anybody know why even attempting to connect to windows that doesn't have sharing turned on, or is behind a firewall would give me a kernal panic? A modern OS should just return a message like: Can not connect. Or something like that.
 
still not working for me. both my workgroup names are the same on both my machines (i've been using 'workgroup' for ages)...

i didn't know about the directory access app though, so thanks for the heads up about it.

i still have to use connect to server to connect to my windows machine and i have to manually type in the ip address in order for it to find it. i don't understand why i have to do that now, since jaguar could automatically find all machines before. maybe that's not the way it works anymore.

any ideas?
 
if the finder just won't see the computers, which is sometimes the case, you can still do cmd-k and type in smb://ip.ad.dr.ess/share to find it.
 
well that is just using connect to server, which is what i previously mentioned that i am doing to see my machines. it is rather annoying to do it because i need to figure out the ip of each machine before i can connect to it, as opposed to simply letting my mac find the computers on the network.

is anyone else having the same problem as me?
 
Originally posted by Col127
well that is just using connect to server, which is what i previously mentioned that i am doing to see my machines. it is rather annoying to do it because i need to figure out the ip of each machine before i can connect to it, as opposed to simply letting my mac find the computers on the network.

is anyone else having the same problem as me?
Click to expand...

i'm sure plenty of people are. you also need to remember that Windows sharing is flaky ENOUGH when its Windows to Windows sharing. I can't even begin to count the times that I couldn't get two Windows machines to see each other on the same Workgroup. While it may be annoying, its pretty limited to the crappiness of the protocol.
 
Windows sharing is nowhere as bad as this. Heck, the network browswer has trouble seeing other macs! I am shocked at how bad the networking ability of panther is.

And no, Col127, you are not alone. It is all over the message boards. Just make sure you tell apple. They will only fix it if enough people complain.
 
Originally posted by Col127
well that is just using connect to server, which is what i previously mentioned that i am doing to see my machines. it is rather annoying to do it because i need to figure out the ip of each machine before i can connect to it, as opposed to simply letting my mac find the computers on the network.

is anyone else having the same problem as me?
Click to expand...

Yes I am having the same problems as you. I just don't understand why panther doesn't find all the windows machines on my network like Jaguar did. Panther does find the one other Mac on the network however. The weird thing for me is I'm running a fresh install of panther on a G5 which can't find any of the windows machines. But my iBook with a fresh install of Panther can see all the other machines. Both machines are plugged into the same network and have the same workgroup name.
 
Just had the same problem BUT WAIT FOR IT... TRYING TO GET A POWERBOOK TO CONNECT TO MY EMAC. They're both on the same network. I even tried to do an airport only connection.

I checked file sharing was on, switched off the firewall. Still nothing. then a stroke of genius, I tried connecting to the powerbook from the EMac rather than hte other way round, it worked a treat.

Don't just blame windows, mac hardware networking is just as kooky!!!
 
win2k vs winxp

I also am having the same trouble (using a Powerbook G4 and Panther).

The funny thing is, the finder sees my win2k box, but none of the winxp boxes.

I can use the go>connect to server method to access my shares on xp, and I can even type in the computer name rather than messing with the IP. However in order to do things like share windows printers etc, you HAVE to be able to use the finder to locate the windows box. Add printer won't let you type the address of the printer share in manually.

I'm a new mac user, and I was excited when apple went on and on about being able to hook to windows boxes. But I have to say, my winxp network never had these problems...
 
I have the same problem. And then when I don't--when I can access the Windows computers on my network--I get another problem: I'm not actually accessing the other computer. I'm actually looking at folders on my computer named after folders on the Windows computer. I can't even see the Windows computer right now or I would be able to tell you where these folders are stored. And it's doing the same thing with other Macs. It's almost as if Panther is confusing other computers with iDisk--letting me place files on the computers' other drives even if I'm not actually connected to those other drives at the moment. Of course, that's assuming it ever makes the transfer. And this does me no good if I need to get a file OFF of those other computers.
 
Thanks! Hoosier, you saved the day. Nice call on the domain name change from "workgroup". I had no idea that even existed.

It works, but slowly. It seems to take a while for the mac to find the shared files. Not sure if it is a mac or a windows thing, but I don't really care because it works. Thanks! You saved me a lot of frustration.
 
Originally posted by anand
Windows sharing is nowhere as bad as this. Heck, the network browswer has trouble seeing other macs! I am shocked at how bad the networking ability of panther is.

And no, Col127, you are not alone. It is all over the message boards. Just make sure you tell apple. They will only fix it if enough people complain.
Click to expand...

well plzz allow me to disagree....i bought an ibook last week ..i have 3 other windows machines in my house..(my other roommates') and i did not know anything about samba before hand...
still i can connect easily as panther detects the computers always...though it takes a lil bit of time when u click networks on the finder...it takes like 1 second before it shows up anything...
 
quick note do you guys leave your systems on 24 7 i found that if the Mac is put to sleep it kills the acces to the windows box. Rest and there it is again wooo. In fact not had a single problem with networking at all with my windows box. only problem i have is when i try to windows print it dont print it just makes the printer print out one line of adobe crap and then feeds paper like its going out of fashion ...
 
Originally posted by Sabenth
quick note do you guys leave your systems on 24 7 i found that if the Mac is put to sleep it kills the acces to the windows box. Rest and there it is again wooo. In fact not had a single problem with networking at all with my windows box. only problem i have is when i try to windows print it dont print it just makes the printer print out one line of adobe crap and then feeds paper like its going out of fashion ...
Click to expand...

I haven't rebooted my PB in a week and put it to sleep many a time and it always finds 1 of my windows comps... you just have to give it some time.

Panther absolutely refuses to connect to my active directory domain controller however, and going in reverse is the same thing :mad:
 
I wonder if this could have something to do with the PC's nic card.

I recently connected panther to MS network and everything showed up with no problems. All the PC's are using 3com nics.

Though this was an all Win2k network..so I don't know if it could be something with XP.
 
Originally posted by ITR 81
Though this was an all Win2k network..so I don't know if it could be something with XP.
Click to expand...

this is the same situation I've been having. the win2k box shows up after a few seconds, but the xp machines never do. I'm thinking the issue is between panther and xp.
 
Are you using XP home or Professional. I would be suprised if you were having Pro problems. The biggest problems I've had airporting XP pro boxes and macs is forgetting to plug the aerial into my G5 and then not turning on personal file sharing. I've noticed that if you are using a network rather than pier to pier networking (which can be flakey using connect to server on any computer) and don't turn on file sharing then it won't be detected. The same goes for XP. If you don't share something CD, hardrive etc it may not be detected.
You all sound intelligent so I assume you've all done similar things (I'm a poor judge of character hehe)
Just get a router that always makes things easier.
 
I was having trouble getting my G4 hooked up to a Home XP Box. It used to work in Jaguar. As administrator on the XP machine, I did not use a master password. I decided to try using one, went in and added a password to my administrator account, and voila, the entire networking system fell into place.

Possibly XP, or Panther requires the use of an administrator password.

I also went in and set my Workgroup name on both machines to "Workgroup", but that didn't seem to do the trick.
 
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