Networking Mac Mini and Windows 7 machine

I am currently looking for some tutorials via google for networking between my mac mini and my Windows 7 machine which is currently in the study. Anyone successfully been up to get a Mac machine to be able to read shared directories from a Windows 7 machine over home network?
It will be a cabled network as my mac mini does not have an Airport card (wireless technology).

Any advice on what to ensure to get the two computers over the network to be able to read each-other?

On the mac, you should need to do ... nothing. It will just "see" the shared folders (in the finder window sidebar under "Shared") if the Windows sharing is set up correctly.

You were right. Surprisingly did it out of luck this morning and it worked. Means I can watch a few videos over the network that I have on my Windows 7 machine.

The shared pc disappeared again. I can't work out for the life of me why it keeps disappearing.