Can't we all just share?

October 30, 2006 7:11 PM

How to share files between a Mac and a PC over an 802.11g network? There is of course

Here's the deal. She has a Mac with an external hard drive, I have a Windows XP PC. We can't seem to see each other on the network. To share files we currently send them over AIM but it seems to throttle the sharing to 80KB/s which is soooo slow. How can we share files over the network quickly (like 1MB/s or so)? I have seen firewire connections, but that is out of the question as my laptop does not have firewire.

posted by LoopyG to computers & internet (5 comments total)

1. Turn on sharing for a folder on the Windows PC
2. run the CMD window and enter:

c:\> ipconfig

to get your IP address

3. On the mac, click on a finder window, and type command+k
4. change the server address to smb://your-ip-address
5. just hit OK for the password - you shouldn't actually need one.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:23 PM on October 30, 2006

Setting up Windows file sharing under Mac OS X
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:27 PM on October 30, 2006

Have you tried using "Apple-K" on the mac, and then just typing in the PC's name and share name (or even the PC's IP and the share name)? I've been able to make this work without getting all the name-browsing happening.

Alternatively, you could run a webserver on each box. I think the mac probably just needs a checkbox changed to enable that. For the PC, something like the Abyss webserver is fairly unobtrusive - but I'd try the first suggestion first...
posted by pompomtom at 7:27 PM on October 30, 2006

Hmmm, we are going to be on the same network again this weekend, I'll try all suggestions here until I find one that works. Thanks for the help mefites!
posted by LoopyG at 10:43 PM on October 30, 2006

Here's the solid resource you want:

MacWindows.com
posted by filmgeek at 5:53 AM on October 31, 2006