Mac - Windows Networking.. Help Please!!

[hayden]

recently ive bought a Mac after using Pc's for the most part of my life and i am having a little trouble networking them together. I currently Have a windows network with shared locations and internet. It has ethernet and wifi. I can access the internet on both parts fine, and can connect to other pc's to a limited extent.. ie i can access it through smb://(name of location).

 

But they will not communicate freely. I wish to fix the network settings so i may explor the entire network. And all this leads to allowing me to print from my mac to a windows printer.

 

ive tried anything i can find on the net and still have no luck.. If anyone could point me in the right direction that would be great. If you would like more info on my problem, ie type of router how ive set up my dns and watnot just let me know.

 

anyhelps good help!! :P

[Amnot Borg]

PCs and Macs use different network protocols designed for the different types of computers. There are ways to get around this. You might need to install software to adapt your odd machine out. Probably making the PCs think the Mac is family.

 

Read up here.

[hayden]

Ive looked at similar things but they don t seem to get me anywhere. This afternoon i found that i can connect in the manner i wish to, to a notebook and access the printer.. but had issues with the printer drivers.

Could it perhaps be something to do with the settings on the windows computer rejecting my mac?

[vystral]

Try Hamachi. It's a cross-platform VPN software for home use. (also...it's free for a network of up to 6 computers)

 

https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp

[x5315]

PCs and Macs use different network protocols designed for the different types of computers. There are ways to get around this. You might need to install software to adapt your odd machine out. Probably making the PCs think the Mac is family.

 

Read up here.

 

Mmmm...Standards...never heard of them.

TCP/IP is available on Macs and PCs.

 

Basically, from what i can make out, you've got something disabling multicasting. You need to enable samba drives on your Mac for your pc to be able to access the drives. On Windows you need to share the drives and the printer and ensure that Multicasts are available to be sent.

 

Hamachi, is a VPN, doesn't really work if you're on a local network.

 

I would suggest that the problem would be Firewall related.

[hayden]

mmm, Ive tried disabling the firewall.. that didn't really do anything that i could see. I'll try allowing multicasting, i haven't tried that.. ill let you know how i go.

[vystral]

Hamachi, is a VPN, doesn't really work if you're on a local network.

Sure it does. I'm using it on a local network. Makes it so much easier to share files and compatible services cross-platform.

 

I have 2 Windows desktops, 2 Windows laptops, one Debian desktop and one Ubuntu laptop all connected to my local network and using Hamachi. Everything works perfectly smooth (much more smoothly than the networking services contained in the afore-mentioned operating systems). I know there is an OSX version of the client, so I can imagine it would work just as well. However, I haven't used OSX in a year or two, so I may be wrong.

[hayden]

Something extremely strange has happened! Os x and windows decided for no apparent reason to start working together. One day i turned on my computer and i could browse the network and i added the printer no worries. Its mind Boggling.