serving files in OS X to a windows machines

hi everyone. i am new here. i have been reading this forum, along with others most of the day trying to recreate what seemed like a relatively easy task in windoze. i am not a computer guy so forgive my ignorance, but i have been hosting files for my wife (mac) and i (pc) off an old win xp machine for the past 2 years. it has worked nearly flawlessly, we are just running out of space and i am anxious to ween ourselves off windows all together with my upcoming pc replacement machine - new macbook pro. we decided to convert this file serving setup from the old beige box to an older g5 this weekend. i stuck a nice new large SATA drive in the g5, formatted it hfs+ and hoped to be able to start sharing each of the 100gb partitions on the new drive, but i am starting to realize that i am unable to share this drive or individual folders on this new drive without add-on software similiar to sharepoints or something else. is this right? i need something more robust then sharing one user folder. please tell me there is an easier way!!! in windows you just mark folders shared, modify the access controls and you are set, os x has access controls and i tried them with no luck. after a bit of research i am understanding that this doesnt really effect anything without osX server? is this right? i have changed them and nothing seems to work.

some forums suggest sharepoints. i tried it and can at least see the shares now but am confused on how to actually get it to allow access to the pc user. when i access the shares it ask me to login. i do, with the same username and password i used on the os X box and it says no access.

also, am i understanding the sharepoints documentation that the permission changes setup by sharepoints only controls the individual folder and not folders created inside later on.

sorry, but i am frustrated. i want to love os x, but stuff like this is just frustrating. i need help, i want to convert.

 

mr.me - this seems to work if the folders you are working on all reside on the same physical drive as the OS. in our case, we have added a 2nd drive to add capacity. the folders on this 2nd drive are what we are trying to gain access to.