Home Networking: The Missing Manual

Connecting from Windows to a Mac

Suppose you're on the other side of the fence. You know, the one where roughly 95 percent of the computer-using world sits? Windows PCs are eager and willing to let you reach across the network and poke around inside a Mac. First, you need to make sure the Mac is ready for your arrival. And then you need to fire up one of your Windows network viewing tools (like My Network Places or Network Neighborhood [Section 5.5.4.3]). Both steps are covered below.

Note

The first step here is for Mac OS X computers only. Mac OS 9 people should pick things up at step 2.

1. On the Mac, open System Preferences. Click the Sharing icon. Turn on Windows File Sharing (Figure 7-7, top).

   If you haven't created an account for whoever will be tapping into your Mac (Section 6.2.1), this is your opportunity to do so. Otherwise, your Mac is ready for invasion. Quit System Preferences, if you like.

   Note

   If you've got Mac OS X 10.2, you also need to turn on the "Allow user to log in from Windows" checkbox, which you can find on the user's Account page (reachable from the System Preferences window).

2. On the Windows machine, open My Network Places or click the Network Neighborhood icon.

   Note

   "My Network Places" is used in newer versions of Windows (Windows ME and Windows XP), while that "Network Neighborhood" business is part of Windows 95, 98, and 2000.

   The goal here is to find the Mac's icon. If it shows up by itself (this may take a minute or two), terrific; you must have sacrificed ...