windoze home network issue

[Corey600rr]

im trying to connect my imac (2.66, leopard )to my home network, my network is setup through windows.... i have a brand new mac, purchased it 3 days ago.

i have a total of 4 pcs (all xp) and one mac. all my pcs see each other, but no mac, my mac is connected to the internet via wifi as well as all the other pc/laptops

at one point i was able to see a few of the computers on my network from mac, and after several pages of reading and videos of how to fix connect change this change that ect..... i managed to mess up my settings.

from what i gathered, its extremely hard to connect a mac to windows home network and a lot more bs then its worth or i just screwed up my settings and my machines are in jumble.

PLEASE help, this is going to determine if i return this machine, this is my first mac and i love it but theses few problems im having is driving me insane!!

also a quick question... if i have an external drive it was on a windows machine i hooked it up to the mac, i can read the files and pull files off just fine. my problem is i can not add files from my mac to the external hd.

my goal is to have one xp machine hooked to the tv for media, and download all my media from mac and transport to the pc via network.

im sorry if this has been posted several times, im tired of countless searches for just bs and mixed info, all help is greatly appreciated

thanks
Corey

 

[stomer]

2 things you need to check:

1. Have you made sure that the Mac is on the same workgroup as your PCs?
System Preferences > Network > Advanced > WINS
2. Have you turned on SMB sharing?
System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing > Options
Make sure that "Share files and folders using SMB" is ticked.

Also, just because your PCs can't see your Mac, doesn't mean that you can't connect to it. I'd recommend that you install Bonjour on all your Windows PCs. It'll make connecting to your Mac a little easier.

Open Windows Explorer and in the address bar type: \\<nameofmachere>.local
Hopefully that'll show you the shares available on your Mac.

 

[Corey600rr]

very well done!!!! i really appreciate the time you took to reply and help me!! i can now see my pcs from mac and mac from pc!! amazing!! and i can also see my external hd and copy and paste files as well!! thank you so much!

 

[stomer]

Glad to help.