Networking Windows and Mac OSX 10.3

February 16, 2004 6:01 PM

What is the best way to network my Windows and Mac OSX 10.3 machines? [more inside]

I have a home network set up, but I can't seem to share my whole hard drive with my Windows machine, only public directories. On the flip side, if I set a folder for sharing on Windows, the Mac doesn't automatically detect it, I have to set it to connect to that folder.

Ideally I'd like to be able to access either machine's hard drive no matter which machine I have connected. I'm thinking Firewire networking might be a good solution for this (and faster than my 10/100 switch) but can't seem to find any decent instructions. If I try networking via Firewire, can I restrict so I am only sharing with machines on my network, since Windows file sharing frightens and disturbs me.

Well I meant to put it inside. Ah well. Sorry about that.

posted by benjh to computers & internet (6 comments total)

that's what i said. she didn't buy it then either.
posted by quonsar at 7:19 PM on February 16, 2004

I assume you're running Windows XP, which by default has "Simple File Sharing." You can turn it off pretty easily; here are some instructions. In order to share the whole drive on your Mac, you'll have to get SharePoints which fortunately is freeware/donationware.

The way you're talking kind of gives me the idea that you dial up via modem on whatever computer you want to use at the moment. If this is the case, in XP you can disable File and Printer sharing per-device so you can turn it off on your dialup connections and keep it on on your network (or Firewire) connection.

Speaking of Firewire networking, it's supposed to be dead simple. I haven't done it myself but I think I've seen people talking about it here on AskMe...
posted by zsazsa at 8:04 PM on February 16, 2004

You can make the Mac automatically connect to a Windows shared folder by connecting to the folder, then placing that connected folder icon into your 'login items' (which can be reached via the system preferences panel on the Mac.)

Someone tell us how to do Firewire networking! The only type I've ever tried is where I connect two Macs together and restart one holding down the Apple key, which allows me to access the other computer as an external drive.
posted by skylar at 12:17 AM on February 17, 2004

For what it's worth, the networking medium should be transparent to the file sharing protocol(s) in cross-platform sharing.

What I do is create a share on Windows, open it on the Mac and leave a shortcut on the desktop, which you can use to reopen it later.
posted by plinth at 4:12 AM on February 17, 2004

No, I'm on broadband, and have Internet hooked to both machines through a Netgear router.

My home network consists of a Windows machine, an iBook, and a G4 Mac. I want to be able to access any of the hard drives from any of the machines from any of the other machines at any given moment.
posted by benjh at 8:58 AM on February 17, 2004

The router should prevent any files from being shared with the wider world, which seems to be what you're alluding to when you say "Windows file sharing frightens and disturbs me."

In the pre OSX days I would have strongly recommended the DAVE software to network between Mac and PC, but nowadays you really don't need it to achieve the same result.

So I would say you now have all the info you need to share files across all computers. Speaking personally, I have two OSX Macs and a Windows XP PC networked together on an Ethernet and wireless network. They talk to each other fine. Go do it :)
posted by skylar at 9:26 AM on February 17, 2004