Mac/Windows Networking

lirandlirand
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hey there,



A question about Mac/Windows networking:



Should networking between the two platforms work seamlessly? (sharing files, directories etc.) No problem to access Mac content from Windows and vice versa?



Are there any special steps that have to be done in order to do that? Any limitations?



Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    It's easiest to access Windows from mac, however it's not terribly hard to set up a basic Samba mount-point on the mac via the System Prefs. In fact, doing this on the mac is a lot easier than doing the same thing in Windows, so if you want to get a box to serve to both, using a mac is best. It also gives you a lot more power thanks to the unix underpinnings.



    To make more interesting mount points, you can edit the smb.conf file. There's a fair amount of documentation available online to do so.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    lirandlirand Posts: 174member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel


    It's easiest to access Windows from mac, however it's not terribly hard to set up a basic Samba mount-point on the mac via the System Prefs. In fact, doing this on the mac is a lot easier than doing the same thing in Windows, so if you want to get a box to serve to both, using a mac is best. It also gives you a lot more power thanks to the unix underpinnings.



    To make more interesting mount points, you can edit the smb.conf file. There's a fair amount of documentation available online to do so.



    Sorry but I didn't understand.



    I want shared files on my Mac and Windows to be available to both platforms. Do I have to do anything special for that?
  • Reply 3 of 8
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lirand


    Sorry but I didn't understand.



    I want shared files on my Mac and Windows to be available to both platforms. Do I have to do anything special for that?



    System Preferences -> Sharing -> Windows Sharing...this will give you access to your Mac files from your Windows computer.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    kukukuku Posts: 254member
    Not seemlessly, no.



    It works fairly well, but there will be unexplainable errors and whatnot.



    Some are Apple's fault, other's are window's fault, some we don't why.



    One thing I've seen is an Indesign bug, which would not properly open files in SMB, but would work in AFP, and crash indesign in the process.



    There are a bunch of other oddities like that. But rule of thumb: Keep mac's enviorments in AFP and PC enviorments in SMB.



    Sure you can mix and match them, or sync a mac into a SMB, and what not. But a mac team would have a lot less issue having its only little AFP between itself instead of grafting onto SMB.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    howeverhowever Posts: 2member
    Don't forget MacDrive if the Windows and OSX platforms are on the same (intel) Mac.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    lirandlirand Posts: 174member
    So the file sharing experience between the platforms won't be that good?



    I don't really know what SMB and AFP mean... on Windows I just toggle "share this folder" on and that's it...
  • Reply 7 of 8
    carniphagecarniphage Posts: 1,984member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lirand


    So the file sharing experience between the platforms won't be that good?



    I don't really know what SMB and AFP mean... on Windows I just toggle "share this folder" on and that's it...





    Actually it is pretty good. I have a mixed home network with 2 Macs and 3 Windows machines.



    If you share a directory on a Windows machine, you can read and write to it from your Mac.

    I hit Command K in Finder -select the Windows machine I want and select the directory. And the Windows directory appears in Finder. You can drag files onto it or whatever. This happens because the Mac has a technolgy called Samba which means that the Mac interacts with the network file system like a PC.



    If you want a PC to be able to access files on the Mac, you can turn on a feature which allows this to work. Having done this you can read and write to the Mac from the Windows box.



    Macs and PCs will happily sit on the same network, connected to the same router with no problems. You can share printers too, I have a laser printer attached to a Windows machine, and I print to it from the Mac. Setting this up took a bit more work.



    I'd say that file sharing and printer sharing works well and is not hard to use- but it is not as seamless as if you were all using only OS X or only Windows.



    C.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    kukukuku Posts: 254member
    AFP Apple File protocol The native of macosx networking. afp://[network name] or ip address.



    SMB: samba free software version of the MS network protocol.



    When you toggle share windows, it's actually smb. Windows will talk to your mac in smb.



    smb://[network name] or ip address



    Due to those differences, things get buggy if you are unlucky.



    If you're just transfering files around, it should be no problem. But as you do more stuff with it, and more often, It will show its cracks.



    If you don't know what is going on, it's probably not going to effect you much. It's for the guys who rely on a network for advance things when stuff get tricky.
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