Snow Leopard 10.6.4 not showing Windows 7 Machines on Finder's Shared

Question

Hi,
After a long, LONG, LOOOOOOONG time searching for an answer and trying different settings all over making a Mac OS the Master Browser finally solved the problem for me.
This is not about sharing, this is not about any of the other thousand issues that working with Windows' Samba might have.
Anyway, to put it simple, you need to edit /etc/smb.conf file as root. For that, open a Terminal and type:
+sudo nano /etc/smb.conf+
keep going down until you reach this part, then add the text in bold as shown:
+; Pull in system-wide preference settings. These are managed+
+; by smb-sync-preferences.+
+include = /var/db/smb.conf+
+; Pull in system share configuration. These are managed+
+; by smb-sync-shares.+
+include = /var/db/samba/smb.shares+
*+; Forcing Master Browser+*
*+os level = 65+*
*+preferred master = yes+*
*+local master = yes+*
[printers]
+comment = All Printers+
Close the file with Control + X and then Yes for saving.
Now just go to System Preferences, Sharing and turn ON File Sharing, click in Options and turn "Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)" to ON. If it was ON already, just turn it OFF and then back ON to restart the service (nmbd).
In a few seconds, or minutes depending on the network, your Mac should become the local browser and then the PCs will appear in your Finder.
You can check if your Mac is the Master Browser by typing this in a Terminal:
+nmblookup -M -- -+
The Master Browser IP that will appear there should be your Mac's.
Message was edited by: morph21, fixing format issue

Answer 1

No worries Per,
OS X uses "old" protocols for MS Networks, that are compatible with WIn XP/2003 and prior, but not fully compatible with Windows Vista/7/2008 and later.
The upshot of this is that OS X works (close to) perfectly on a network with a Windows XP master browser or a Windows 2003 Domain Controller.
On a network with a Windows Vista/7 Master Browser or Windows 2008 Domain Controller, it fails to be able to populate the network list. This means that the user is forced to manually identify and connect to servers.
On a private network, where I am in full control of the machines, I can force OS X to win the Master Browser election by starting it first. The Windows Vista/7 machines then start up but do not force a re-election, because there is a Master Browser in place.
On a corporate network running Windows 2008 Domain Controller - the OS X user is at a real disadvantage.
As far as I know all of this arises because Apple is on an old version of Samba - because the Samba changed their licensing requirements some time ago. With a bit of luck Apple will do something about this in Lion.
Cheers,
Rodney