Mac & PC networking very flakey

I've used PC's for years and networked them with no problem. Decided to "go Mac" at Christmas as I'm a keen photographer and liked the imaging sofware etc. So I now have an iMac and MacBook and love 'em! But trying to get all PC's (where a lot of my images are kept) Mac's to see/speak to each other - not a chance!

I have:
desktop PC running Win 7
laptop running Win 7
iMac running Snow Leopard
MacBook running Snow Leopard

All are connected wirelessly to router except the Desktop PC which is ethernet. PC's are visible to each other and macs are visible to each other and resources/files can be shared easily but cannot get the Mac's to see PC's and vice versa so can't share files. The strange thing is that all can be pinged to each other (Mac to PC etc) but I cannot get Mac's to show PC's and PC's to show Mac's on their respective network screens.

I have been all round the houses reading forums and fixes but nothing seems to work so any glimmer of help would be hugely appreciated.

doolally

9 times out of 10, these kinds of issues are related to security software on the Windows machines. Are you running anything like Norton Internet Security or something of its ilk? If so, you're probably going to need to tweak settings in that package. The best way to start would be to disable it entirely and see if you can get it working that way.

Try this

How to Enable File Sharing on a Mac | The Techy Guy

Thanks for that folks. It works after a fashion but only if I use the smb cmd and, of course, this allows the Mac to "see" the PC but not the other way round. The PC appears as an address in Finder and not the actual name of the PC. I also have to use the smb cmd every time after a shut down as the PC address changes according to what machines on the network are on etc. That's what I mean by "flakey". I keep reading that networking a Mac is easy and it does it automatically but it appears there are severe limitations to that!