Networking with Windows XP

Is anyone here familiar with networking between OS 10.4 and Windows XP? I thought all you had to do was enable Windows Sharing in System Preferences and then create a Work Group for the Windows PC, but then when I go into my Network, nothing shows up. Or, the one time it did show up, it said that the alias did not match or something like that.

Has anyone successfully networked a Mac and Windows computer? If so, could you give me a list of steps to do so?

Thanks.

Both computers, the Mac and the Win PC need to be in the same workgroup.

In Windows, the setting can be found by right-clicking on My Computer, properties, computer name.

In Mac OS X, this setting is hidden under Applications, Utilities, Directory Access, SMB/CIFS, configure. Enter the same name on both computers, and you've got your workgroup.

On the Windows PC, you can either share your My Documents folder over the network, allow users to change files, or create a sub-folder somewhere that you share in the same manner. (right-click on folder icon, sharing...)

Now you can browse your network and move files between computers by clicking on Network in Finder, or My Networkplaces, Workgroup Computers, (name of computer).

When I double click the icon for the computer when I am in the Finder in Network, it says "The alias 'computer name' could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found"

Ever had that problem or know how to fix it?

When I enabled windows and file sharing on my mac, it then just told me that the share could be browsed by browsing to //192.168.0.2/name

I was able to type that into my windows explorer address bar and it brought the MAC sharefolders right up in windows. How are the two connected? (over wireless, ethernet, etc...)

Same workgroup, and are they on the same network?