MacBook reading Vista shared public files

[MarcLodge]

Hi all,
I'm sure this is a common problem but I can't find specific answers on the net or in the FAQ. My daughter has a MacBook connected to our wireless network. Also connected to that network are various Windows laptops and a desktop. The desktop has all of our family photos on it in the Public drive and this has been set up, hopefully corectly, so that it can be found and viewed. I'm fairly certain that this works ok as the PS3 can see the photos, as can a wireless photo frame (we're big on gadgets in our house!).

I'm afraid I know very little about the MacBook or the way it works as it is not my machine but it does not seem to be able to see the Vista machine at all. It runs Mac OS X V10.5.8. I have looked at system preferences..sharing as I read on the net that I should enable windows sharing, but there's not a windows sharing to enable! I've also looked at the account hunting for 'allow user to log in from windows' (You can tell I don't know what I'm doing) but that option doesn't exist either.

I'd be grateful if somebody could either point me to an idots guide article or find the time to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Many thanks

Marc

 

[fisheromacse]

I currently have nothing running vista, but here is a possibility...

make sure file sharing and smb are turned on (System Preferences > Shairing > File Sharing > Options) on the mac.

You should see the drive in the finder after file sharing is turned on

if not, then on your mac select Connect to Server (command+k) from the Go Menu and key in smb://IPaddressofPC where 'IPaddressofPC' is the vista pc's IP address.

 

[MarcLodge]

Hi fisheromacse,
Many thanks for your quick response. I have ticked the file sharing box in the sharing under system preferences. I'm not sure where to find smb (what is it?) but have clicked options and a box has appeared on which I've ticked the share files using AFP and also share files using SMB.

Does I need to turn the SMB on anywhere else? Also, how will I know if it has worked (where do I look for the drive)?

 

[MarcLodge]

Hi all,
Update - on the Vista machine undet networks, I can now see the MacBook (called WII for some reason).