08-13-2006, 10:04 AM

First apologies if this in on the wrong section.

I have 2 windows xp pc's and a macbook. ( I am new to mac)

I have a printer and usb hdd attached to one of the pc's which both the other xp pc and the mac book can access.

This is my question under xp how can I view my macbook, I can view the xp pcs under network places -> view workgroup computers, the mac doesn't show up..any ideas how i can get it to do so..under linux I have used samba is there something similar i have to do?

thanks.

08-15-2006, 10:04 PM

1. Click the apple icon in left corner of menu bar
2. Choose "system preferences"
3. Go to "sharing" (in internet and network heading)
4. In the services tab, click the little checkbox against "windows sharing". This will enable the windows sharing service (will also open ports in firewall, if firewall is running). After it enables (usually takes 2-3 sec), it'll show you the address at which windows users will be able to access the mac.

For me, it didn't work with windows 98 on the first go, and I didn't restart the PC because I am hosting websites from that. However, this is the official method and should work.

By the way, macs share files with windows using samba too, just like Linux.