How do I set up a network such that my Mac laptop will be able to view files on my Windows 7 Machine? I get the wireless fine on my laptop and have the Windows machine hooked up to the router via cable, but I really have no idea how to get the two machines connected.
Linksys router, Windows 7 machine.
arguingwithsignposts
Ok, not familiar with Windows 7 except on VMWare on the Mac, but isn’t there a shared folder where you can see the files you want to see?
Ed Marshall
If anybody pops up and says anything about homegroups shoot them on sight.
on edit: I’m joking. I’ll write a walk-through if I can a few free minutes.
AhabTRuler
I have the SO’s macbook interface with my XP based network, but know nothing about 7.
Is file sharing enabled on the PC? Do you have a network folder?
me
Ignore the stuff about homegroups though. They only work between windows 7 computers.
sneezy
“How do I set up a network such that my Mac laptop will be able to view files on my Windows 7 Machine?”
http://lifehacker.com/247148/how-to-mount-a-windows-shared-folder-on-your-mac
ra2phoenix
If you enable network sharing on a PC drive, go to Go->Connect to Server (Apple-K) on the mac and type in the IP address of the PC. Then with a username/password you should see the drive you just enabled sharing on which will be mounted as a network volume. Make sure you enable write permissions on the sharing window or it’ll be read-only.
Ed Marshall
That write up isn’t going to work with Windows 7, I believe. They messed around with the sharing.
Right Wing Extreme
John,
Try this: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=635271
gnomedad
Until you work out direct communication, you can use Dropbox.
donotwant
Finder cmd-k to open the connect window.
then smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
where the x’s is your window’s IP address.
Ed Marshall
The difference is they won’t let you share the whole drive anymore, you have to make a folder to share from.
I don’t have a windows 7 machine with me, but I think this will work:
Make a folder you want to share and put the files in it.
Go to my computer, right-click on the drive and pick properties.
Go to the sharing tab, and find “advanced sharing”.
Tick the box that says “share this folder”.
Name it.
Click on permissions, pick everyone. Say Ok, and apply it.
The router shouldn’t matter at all.
Perry Como
Wipe OSX from your Mac and install Lucid Lynx.
mm
I second using Dropbox.
arguingwithsignposts
@Perry Como:
I think I fixed that for ya.
Ed Marshall
The Mac shouldn’t need anything, if the share is set up right you just go finder—>go—>network and it should be there.
tdd
If it’s like Vista and you don’t have Windows Pro, you don’t.
John Cole
@tdd: I have windows 7 pro.
Right Wing Extreme
JC,
Win * Pro or not it does not matter. Put your files in to the “Shared” folder, then follow the instructions in the link I put in above, and it should work.
BettyPageisaBlonde
I triple the Dropbox suggestion. It’s an alternative that just works.
http://www.dropbox.com
MattR
@John Cole: 32 bit or 64? I am currently in the process of loading up my new Windows 7 work laptop with everything I need. I wisely let my boss deal with his first so he could figure out all the things that don’t work on the 64 bit architecture and find workarounds/alternatives.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@Perry Como:
Phase 1: Sell used overpriced computer on eBay to some
suckerMac UserPhase 2: Buy new i3 laptop for $600 retail
Phase 3: Profit
maus
@MattR:
Aside from the odd hardware vendor, you shouldn’t have any problems with 64 over 32 bit.
MattR
@maus: Well, the terminal emulation software we use did not work at all on Windows 7 so he had to find an alternative for that. And he had to track down the hack to allow you to install Oracle 11 on Windows 7. Which in turn led to the 64 bit version of a program trying to work with Oracle not functioning, but the 32 bit version works fine (so far).
toms
are you trying to use the laptop to access the PC from somewhere out on the internet back to your home PC (like a coffee shop), or just trying to access it while you’re on your home network? Those are 2 different animals.
soonergrunt
Download Boot Camp, which is the only Apple software worth a damn. Wipe the drive of the macbook and using boot camp, install windows 7 64-bit.
Alternatively, get rid of the mac and get an actual computer.
maus
@MattR: What’re the exact problems you’re seeing with either?
MattR
@maus: To be honest, i dont even know. I just installed the software/versions he told me to. Pretty much done now (I think)
James Hare
I would suggest buying a NAS and sharing files that way. Many benefits, few drawbacks. You also get a great backup device.
Or you can use the connect to server thing in the Finder to connect to windows shares, the SMB:// thing outlined above.
Macs making connecting to Windows easy. Windows does not make connecting to Macs easy. You can enable folder sharing in the sharing preferences pane and set up SMB sharing (windows uses a protocol called SMB — I am unsure of the acronym’s meaning and don’t wish to look it up).
Boot camp is awesome. With refit to make a pretty boot screen it makes your mac into the most capable tool in the computing universe (at least legally). You can do windows and macintosh with the same machine. I’m actually writing this from Windows 7 on a MacBook.
James Hare
@MattR:
What about Windows XP Mode on Windows 7? Microsoft opened to everyone just a few weeks ago.
Strandedvandal
Ah Mac haters. They are so cute.
MattR
@James Hare: I haven’t played with that yet. I may give it a try in a week or so. For now, I am just happy to get all the basic things working so my old laptop can die a good death (which could happen at any moment). Then I can poke around and see what fun stuff Windows 7 has to offer me (including XP Mode)
Cain
dropbox dude. Morever, get your family in on it and you can share a folder wtih them, drop in pet pics, movies whatever. It is the awesome. We have a shared folder with my family who are spread around the globe. Good stuff.
cain
edit – you only get 2GB free, but the shared one gets larger teh more people who share.
Otherwise just get one of those canned nas drives.
Sloegin
Do this
cmd-k
cifs colon wack wack pcname
Perry Como
Server Message Block; Samba is the free implementation that * n * x uses. It works pretty well, unless you do the most recent security update on your Linux file server, then OSX 10.6.3 throws a hissy fit and you have to: set up AFP shares for all of your formerly working Samba shares, back out of the security update, or say fuck the Mac users and wait for Apple to fix their shit. I know my preference, but it isn’t very practical in an office with a bunch of designers.
ericblair
Here ya go. Works fine, and the Win7 computer will show up in your finder without having to connect to it with cmd-k. It sometimes takes a few minutes for the mac to find the other machine; I don’t know why but this is normal.
Calming Influence
I’m running a modified Etch-a-Sketch with an overclocked chip from a Mister Coffee. The only problem I have with file sharing is that I have to whistle at 14400 baud.
burnspbesq
Because I listen to NPR on my morning commute and Citrix is a major supporter of NPR, I am aware of the existence of something called “Go to My PC. I haven’t tried it because our firm has a robust Citrix environment that allows me to run just about anything that runs on the firm network in a window on my MacBook Pro. Now if our IT guys could figure out how to make the Citrix iPad app work, I would be stylin.’
Calming Influence
@Perry Como:
Our lab network has XP, 7, Linux, and Mac; I don’t know how the Samba servers are set up, but they allow everybody to share files with everybody else.
mikey
Late to this party. Sure, you can enable sharing and map a network drive, but that’s pretty ’90s. Somebody upthread got it right – NAS. Put up a NAS device and put your files on there. Access it from anything – pcs, macs, linux, your phone, whatever.
Now, here’s the cool answer. Set it up using a thingie called a PogoPlug and some cheap USB hard drives. Now, you can access all your files from your network, or from anywhere in the world across the internet, from anything with a browser.
Hundred and twenty nine bucks (plus storage). No better solution in the whole freakin world…
mikey
bvac
Once you cave and get a NAS, make sure you enable Time Machine too. It’ll save your ass sooner than you know it.
RareSanity
Dammit, I hate when I’m late to a tech thread!
Anyhew, just in case someone stops in, I can’t let this one go:
@soonergrunt:
As a 15+ year software engineer (embedded linux, no “web design”), I had primarily worked on either a Windows or Linux based computers. About three months ago, I bought a used MacBook off craigslist. I can say this, without a shadow of a doubt, OS X is THE most powerful operating system on the market.
The mix of, as easy or as hard as I want, is unmatched by any other. The fact that I can either operate in “do it for me” graphical mode or a UNIX based, “I’ll do it myself” command line mode seamlessly, is a marvel of design. The Windows command prompt is an abomination for trying to get anything done.
Honestly, unless there is a particular piece of software that can only run effectively on a native (non-VM) Windows install, I don’t see any reason why I would ever buy a Windows based PC ever again. Even then, Boot Camp would handle the situation just fine.
Oh, and about the sharing, I’m sure you have figured it out by now John…but like others have said, you do it by folder. Right click on the folder and go to sharing. Then on the Mac, in Finder, use “Go” and type in either the IP address or the computer name (it’s network name, not the “so and so’s computer” name).
Easy peesy…
Maude
On the MAC, make sure that you have sharing checked.
You are only file sharing, not networking computers.
Win 7 shares files with MAC. You can use windows help, follow the instructions and set it up.
soonergrunt
@RareSanity: The reason I say that is quite simple. Windows 7 is a much more secure and functional OS for use by the vast majority of people out there.
You are a linux developer. So I can assume a very high skill level, (why run OS X? Why not go linux all the way?)
For the rest of the world, I have yet to find anything that a mac does that a Windows box can’t do, and do cheaper, and usually faster. And almost always more securely.
OS X has several security holes that have been open knowledge for months, and in a couple of cases, for more than a year, and these have not been patched. You know as well as I do if not better as a developer that security flaws are inevitable. But it is unconsionable to leave them unpatched any longer than absolutely necessary. This is one of the reasons (cost being the main one) that corporate and government entities don’t use macs unless its for graphic arts stuff.
CanSecWest’s pwn to own contest is nortorious for two things over it’s history–Apple products falling first, and Windows falling last.
Wile E. Quixote
@RareSanity:
Ditto, I’ve been a UNIX systems administrator/engineer for 20 years now. I like MacOS X because it just fucking works. Are there problems with it? Yes, HFS+ is getting long in the tooth and the memory management system needs work but shit just works.
Now, I’m sure some linux fanboi is going to chime in with some bullshit about how fucking wonderful Karmic or Lucid are, and before he does I’d like to tell him to suck my hairy balls. Really, suck ’em you fucking Linux bitch, and then afterwards polish my taint. I’m running Karmic on my workstation at work now and it’s pretty good, especially the support for building virtual machines using KVM or AMIs for EC2, but I’d have a lot more respect for it if cut and paste worked properly between Firefox, gvim and the Konsole application and if cut and paste worked at all in the Konsole application I’d have to go somewhere private and touch myself. And this is on Ubuntu, which has the best desktop of all of the Linux variants I’ve used, and I’ve used all of the major ones, SuSE, RedHat/CentOS/OEL/Fedora and Ubuntu. As far as I can tell the Ubuntu desktop is based upon the Windows XP desktop, except instead of working to make it functional, which is really hard, the programmers just pimped it out by adding lots and lots of bells, whistles and shiny buttons to it.
As for Windows 7 any Windows fanbois need to read up on the concept of privilege separation and then call me when Microsoft figures out how to implement it properly and when they finally get rid of the goddamned registry.
Ed Marshall
For me it’s because I want to edit video and cinerella just isn’t there yet.
The OS X as insecure vs. MS products is true if you cock your head a certain way. If you ask me to root a computer, I’d rather take a crack at the unix based system because a) I know more exploits b) it *does* more than a standard MS deployment and there are more services to exploit.
This assumes an actual expert is working to break into your computer which isn’t ever going to happen to your home user.
If the task is write a virus, I’m going to attack MS everytime because a) you have a much bigger market share b) MS memory management permissions are loose and allow an environment for self-replicating code.
Ed Marshall
@Wile E. Quixote:
use shift-insert to paste. Sorry.
Oh, and try Mint Linux
soonergrunt
@Wile E. Quixote: I have privledge separation on all the computers in my house. Windows doesn’t set it up from the get-go like it should, but it’s not hard to implement and use. If Windows enforced the concept out of the box, that would be better though.
James in WA
OS X is based on BSD, whose lineage is far older and mature than linux. “Going linux all the way” would be downgrading.
Heh. I still remember rebooting frozen linux lab machines with “TCP ERROR 4839” (or something similar) blinking in their consoles, back in my halcyon graduate student days. Yeah, there’s some quality you can really depend upon!
Sigh. I do love me these BJ OS battles. Almost makes me want to go read the alt.flame archives.
RareSanity
@soonergrunt:
I couldn’t disagree more, Windows in neither more secure or more functional. It’s certainly not more functional, just more familiar.
It would mainly hinge on what your definition of secure is. I submit, that out of the box, fresh install, OS X is orders of magnitude more secure than Windows against external (internet based) hacking attempts. The “security” in Windows is most often added after the OS install with anti-virus, firewalls, malware detection, etc…
So, comparing apples to apples, could you honestly state that a fresh install of Windows is more secure than a fresh install of OS X?
Once you throw in addition software, the security is no longer a function of the operating system, but the applications.
RareSanity
Forgot this…
@soonergrunt:
I have a Windows machine and an Ubuntu machine at work that I use for development…
Once I get home, I don’t want to ‘develop’ my personal computer…I want it to do all of the basics out-of-the-box and if I’m feeling a little froggy, I can do some advanced stuff as well.
Running the current flavors of Linux on my personal computer has ‘0’ appeal to me. It would be like working all day as a barber only to come home and have to cut family member or neighbor’s hair, for free…no thanks…
soonergrunt
@RareSanity: See my earlier about constantly updated vs. non-updated. No, OS X is not more secure right out of the box in my experience, and it’s not more secure over time, either.
The only thing that makes OS X less unsecure (because it damn sure isn’t more secure) is that nobody does anything interesting on it–from the point of view of professional threats–mainly because of the aforementioned lack of proper post-release security support by Apple.
Put it one more way. I have never seen and will never see an Apple computer in a SIPRnet or JWICS room, even with the added hardware encryption.
pixelpusher
SIPRnet and JWICS nothwithstanding, in my humble work environment, all the bad things seem to happen to the Windows machines. My last Mac virus attack was in 1997 (before OS X). My Windows system hasn’t been attacked since 2008, because that’s when I took it permanently off-line. There are two known pieces of Mac OS X malware, with a couple dozen subvariants of each. Windows viruses are approaching numbers similar to those used to describe the national debt.
And here’s something that never happens to Macs:
But that was 22 days ago. Why dredge up the past?
Dick Hertz
It’s funny because having used all of the popular operating systems, it was Apple systems that were filled with viruses in the grad school computer lab (mandatory use Apple gulag) and in Windows it was typically pretty obvious what things were bad and could thus be avoided. Easy Peasy on my gf’s netbook is the best out of all three so far. If virus scum and malware losers or teabaggers for that matter ever learn to spell and punctuate there will be no way to isolate and correct them….
Iris
@MattR: If you are looking for terminal emulation that works on windows 7 I recommend that you download PowerTerm terminal emulation at http://www.ericom.com/pti.asp