Networking a Mac and a PC (1 Viewer)

[Carl Johnson]

Now that I've got my Mac up and running if it's possible I would like to set up a network that would let me access the files on the PC with the Mac. I was sitting here dreading the thought of burning the 80gb worth of files that are on my old computer to CD Roms and figure there has to be an easier way to do this.
Forgive me for being incoherent here but I'm making this up on the fly. The Windows ME enabled PC, the one with the files that I'm trying to recover, is well past its prime. The video card is shot and the hard drive is unstable. The PC has a bigger hard drive on it than the new computer so I couldn't transfer all of those files so I'll be needing some kind of external hard drive too. I'll cross the bridge of more storage space when I get to it. For now my only priority is setting up the network. Any suggestions?

 

[Andrew Pratt]

What infrastructure do you have now? Router? Ethernet cables etc? Its very easy to transfer files between the PC and Mac over a network so we just need to know what you have now in order to help either set up a network or use your existing one.

 

[JohnRice]

What Mac is this? If it is a desktop model, it has the capability to easily install at least one more internal hard drive, it you need more space. Hard drives are cheap.

 

[Carl Johnson]

The computer is an emac running Panther 10.2. I don't have a network set up yet, just a router so that I can connect two separate computers to the internet. I just replaced one of those two computers with the Mac. What I'd like to (assuming I have the terms correct, I've never done this before) is to set up a network where the Mac is a server and the PC that I just retired is a slave.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

You actually do have a network if both computers are plugged into a router. If you enable fire sharing on the PC you should be able to view it on the Mac. I'm not familar with differences in OSX but in 10.4 if you click the Network in Finder you should be able to see your PC and then connect to it to view the shared folders.

 

[DaveF]

Connecting a Mac and a PC that are both on a LAN, as you've got with your computers on connected to a router so they can share your cable modem (or DSL), is not too hard. However, I've only done it with a Windows XP system. This is described below:

http://macs.about.com/cs/tipstutoria...sx_sharing.htm

Here's a link specifically discussing OS X 10.2 and Windows 98. WinME was basically a revised 98, so this might be helpful.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107083

 

[Patrick Larkin]

I'm assuming you have a shared folder or volume on the PC. If you do, then on the mac, you click the menu item "Go > Connect to Server" and type in:

smb://IP.of.the.PC/SharedFolderName/

and type in the PC username and password.


Conversely, you can turn on Windows Sharing on the mac by going to System Preferences and selecting "Sharing." Check Windows sharing. Now when you navigate through "Network Neighborhood" on the PC, the Mac should show up.

 

[DaveF]

This may be true for XP Pro, but not for XP Home. XP Home requires a manual process, as described in the links I gave.