Networking mac & pc

[Anonymous]

We have a small Practice only two man show. i am the computer guy sense i am still in school. the problem is that recently by updating my pc laptop to service pac 2 or sometime prior the two computers no longer communicate with another. My boss is running an apple G-4 with the latest mac OS. I have tried everything i can think of. when my boss tries to log onto server (my laptop)using the IP he is asked for his user name and password by my machine. then he gets an error message telling him system resources not found. it was all working so well and some stupid update that i am completely unable to track down messed it all up. neither one of the machines can see the other when browsing the network. i tried setting back my system and that didn't even work which decent make sense. i will try just about anything to fix it other than getting a new machine.

[aahatimo]

sp2 installs w/ firewall defaulted to on. that may be it. there is a new windows firewall tool in control panel.

[Anonymous]

nope i already turned the windows firewall off. I use McAfee firewall and his IP is on the allowed list

[__archiben]

has SP2 done anything to the authentification methods required by your PC? maybe trashing the mac's network prefs and user keychain for your server will clear it . . .

on the mac:
/Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access

find the authentification files for your 'server' and delete it/them

also, run an application on the mac called 'Cocktail' (www.macosxcocktail.com i think) to clear the logs and caches and run the cron maintenance scripts. ('cocktail' is simply a GUI for a whole bunch of unix commands - you may well know how to do this directly from the terminal)

if this still doesn't work, i would say there's a bigger problem on the PC side . . . and there you're on your own!

HTH
~archiben

[dwyckoff]

Greetings. Have you figured out your problem yet? I have a G5 networked to a XP server at home. I suggest the obvious first: Make sure you are on the same subnet (usually 255.255.255.0) and that the shared folders on the PC use the exact short user name and the same login password as the Mac. See the Mac OS help on the Mac.

[Thomas Holm]

Why not turn around and set up the mac as a server instead? If OSX's default Windows filesharing isn't enough, theres an app called Sharepoints <http://www.hornware.com> Lets you share any folder/directory, not just the Shared default.

A free alternative to Cocktail is OnyX <http://www.titanium.free.fr/>

[Karl Ottenstein]

Some more information for the pile.

I added a Mac dual G4 to my network (peer to peer) this week and was pleased with how easy sharing is between OS X and XP, except that I have experienced the following glitch that may be related to your problem:

One of the XP computers on my network is XP Home SP2, the other two are XP Pro SP2. OS X is 10.3.6 with all updates installed.

The Mac always sees the XP Home machine. However, it only sees the XP Pro machine when each machine has been rebooted. If I open an XP shared folder on the Mac and later put the Mac to sleep, not only is the share lost, but when I browse my workgroup, that XP machine is completely gone as well ... the XP Home machine never disappears.

Same security settings on each XP machine for firewall, etc. and each has a password established for accessing the folders.

If you solve this, please post the result. I bought the G4 used with 1 year remaining on AppleCare and am waiting for the AppleCare to get transfered so I can call Apple tech support to figure this out. Maybe you'll resolve it before then. 😉

BTW: I can always access the Mac from the disappearing XP Pro machine, so the suggestion of making the Mac the server might be a way for you to go.

HTH,
Karl

[Thomas Holm]

I might add that our office is five Macs and one PC. The server is a mac with OSX 10.3.6 client with Windows sharing on and Sharepoints (this is a lot cheaper than OSX Server 😉

We have one shared data folder on the server. (everthing shared, projects, workfiles, shared libraries etc reside there) All machines have full read/write privileges to it. This folder is backed up to one external Firewire hard drive once a day, and to another now and then (should be once a week 😉.
For this procedure, we use Silverkeeper on the server (www.silverkeeper.com), a free no-hassle OSX backup program that is maintained by laCie (to sell more drives, I guess).

This set-up has been working flawlessly for more than two years.

The PC is a Dell with XP pro SP2. It's firewall is turned off. But we have a D-link router with firewall built-in to protect the network from external attacs through our ADSL internet link.

One thought. The fact that the machines lose their connection when re-started might have something to do with the way they get their Ethernet network adresses. If they don't have fixed IP adresses, a DHCP server must hand out temporary IP leases every time a machine starts. This is usually done by a hardware or software "router" that has a DHCP server built-in.

In my experience it's a lot more stable to give each machine a fixed local IP network adress (192.168.0.1 etc) than to use DHCP (dynamic address allocation). To make this work along with internet connectivity for all machines, you need a router that has NAT (network address translation) between your network and the Internet. If all machines have fixed IPs set, you can turn DHCP off at the router. If it has a configurable firewall too you get very good protection AND a stable, fast network. Routers are cheap these days. Well worth their money.

Each machine's address is set in its TCP/IP properties in the network control panel (system preferences).

Fixed IPs also makes for faster startup times. And you set up the router for internet by your ISP's instructions as you would a single internet-connected computer.

A tip for configuring any Ethernet network is to download Apple's Designing Airport Networks handbook:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/airport/DesigningAirPortNetworks0190271.pdf

It has a lot of good tips on how to to this, and it explains TCP/IP networks in what I think is the easiest possible way. You don't need an Airport to understand.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thanks for all of the tips, Thomas.

I've learned a little more since my last post.

For one, there is a bug in OS 10.3.6 that prevents browsing to printers shared by Windows networking. Discussed on Apple forums. Browsing the network finds no printers. 10.3.5 apparently was fine. Holding command while clicking the Add button to add a new printer lets you choose "Advanced" and enter an SMB network address for the shared printer. This seemed to work for people on the chat group ... but hasn't yet for me.

Others have also complained about Windows computers coming and going in Finder. I've found that I can connect to a Windows computer by giving its \\computername address path even when Finder decides not to show it. Haven't needed to enter the static IP address yet, although each Windows machine is static.

Accessing the Mac from Windows is always flawless.

Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

My networking problems (below) have gone away with the 10.3.7 update.

Karl