CoExistence in a Windows World - OSX SL Not Seeing Windows Network

Question

This will be a challenging post, I suspect.
OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.3: Finder is unable to see the windows network to which it is attached. Conversely, the windows network sees my iMAC and it's little sister (my wife's Mac Book Pro) just fine and dandy.
The Windows workstations have no trouble connecting to the MACs, and the MACs have no problem connecting to the PCs (SMB://ipaddress or machine name)
So why then can I simply not use Finder>Go>Network and see all the PCs and MACs on my network? Applecare couldn't help with this either, except to recommend a reinstall of OSX. Seems silly, because the iMAC is three days old, so nothing has been added! (Yet...)
Here's the setup:
Home Network, all rooms homerun with cat5e wired to structured media closet in basement housing nice cisco gig-e switch uplinked to Motorola Router to cable provider.
5 Windows PCs + Server (3 kids w/win7, Laptop w/win7, server w/linux, and Mediahub) and 2 new MACs.
Both MACs have same problem, can't see windows network, but can attach to shares and can be browsed from PCs Network (Neighborhood).
MACs - Firewall off, Shares On (File, Screen, DVD), DHCP Leases from Server, WINS and DNS entries correct, Workgroup Membership correct)
Me... STUMPED...

Answer 1

Is this helpful: Set Up Your Home Network, Windows 7 Edition - PC World? The following is for Leopard, but you may find it applies reasonably well to SL:
Simple guide to Leopard/Windows Home Networking
Written by Intercepter121 and originally posted on the Apple Discussions here.
If your network complies to the minimum requirements described below you should be able to share resources without any need to enter commands in the terminal to modify configuration files in your mac.
Requirements
1. A decent router
2. Mac Os x 10.5.1 installed on your macs
3. Windows XP or Vista
4. Number of network devices <10
5. Some network printers or drives (NAS)
6. A decent ISP offering a good DNS service
General Settings
If your router offers DHCP and any of the device has power saving features there is a risk that the IP addresses are renewed. This can be problematic as the devices keep changing IP addresses. As this is your network is strongly recommended to reserve IP addresses to the MAC (Machine Address Code) of the various devices so that they can power on and off and still keep the same IP.This simple suggestion will greatly improve the browsing of the local network.
Accessing Windows Resources from Leopard with no authentication
Windows
1. Check the settings of the PC and ensure the IP addresses on the local LAN are trusted
2. Activate sharing on the desired devices ensuring the shares are read and write. If you use Vista ensure password protected sharing is disabled.
3. Try to access the windows share from another windows computer if available to confirm no authentication is required
MAC
1. Go into system preferences->security-Firewall check that the setting is not on allow only essential services. Recommended settings is allow access to specific
2. Go back into system preferences network. On the tab location click edit locations. Duplicate Automatic and call the new location Home. Now select the Home location and go into Advanced-WINS. In the workgroup field enter the same value that is on the other windows computers for example HOME. Now press enter then go back to the main screen. Select Edit locations and delete the location automatic. Now edit your location Home and rename it Automatic. This workaround is a leopard bug described here.
3. Give 5 minutes to allow all the other machines to broadcast their IP address and the other computers should appear on the left side of your finder window. You can now select the shares you want to connect. As no authentication is active if you are prompted with a user name just press OK.
The procedure to access a NAS is the same as above, just ensure permissions are set to files are read/write for anyone to avoid confusion.
NOTE: There is no need to activate SMB sharing if you don't want to allow the PC to read folders on your MAC
Troubleshooting
After you have followed all the steps you don't see any windows PC.
Identify the IP address of the machine you want to connect. In finder select Option+K and enter SMB://IPADDRESS. If you can connect you have a name resolution problem. Go into your router configuration and ensure that the option DNS assigned by ISP is selected and you don't have services like Open DNS in use and fixed IP addresses in that field. Apply the changes and reboot the router. You should start seeing windows PC in finder shortly after.
Your ISP DNS service is poor and you must use Open DNS or similar
If you are forced to use services like open dns you have the risk that the router propagates the DNS servers to your machines. As the implementation of SAMBA in Leopard effectively blocks the MAC to be a master browser for performance reasons you end in a situation in which tiger machines connect and leopard ones don't see a single share. Let's fix it.
1. Go into System Preferences->Network then advanced DNS if you see here the IP addresses of the open dns servers this is the case. Unfortunately you will be forced to change the hosts file.
2.Ensure you have reserved IP addresses to all your machines so that they always get the same IP.
3. Now login into your mac as administrator and go into utilities=>terminal.
4. Issue the following command sudo pico /etc/hosts
5. Now scroll down and enter all the IP addresses and computer names of any device you want to browse
6. Reboot your MAC
The windows devices will now appear in finder and you will be able to connect with Option+K.
You cannot access shares even entering the IP address
You have not reserved IP addresses to each machine. Go into your router LAN set up and make sure that is the case.
Accessing Leopard resources from Windows
1. Go into system preferences->security-Firewall check that the setting is not on allow only essential services. Recommended settings is allow access to specific
2. Go into System preferences->accounts and click on Guest flag the option Enable guest account to access shared folders
3. Now into System preferences->sharing select file sharing and then options here flag SMB and select the user that has to be logged into the computer when the share has to be accessed. Ensure that the folder you want to share has read/write or whatever permissions you like it to have set for Everyone
You should now be able to see your MAC in the windows network resources and access the shared folder with a double click without any password request.
Troubleshooting
You don't see any MACs from Windows
Check the firewall settings at the start of this post. Then go back to the Network configuration hit advanced and then TCPIP check is using DHCP and not a fixed address. Then check the sharing is set as above with SMB clicked. If SMB is not set you won't even see your mac from windows.
You see the MAC and the shared folders but you can't read or write on it
Ensure you have set the guest account to access shared folders. Then check on the sharing preferences that there is at least one folder with read permission for everyone. The classic case here is Dropbox that leopard sets as read and write for the user of the MAC but no access for other users. You try to click on drop box and receive an error but when you actually try to write a file you can do it. Check the permissions on the subfolders of the share as those permissions will prevail on the home shared folders
FAQ
You may want to do more complicated things, but first ensure you can actually share files without security in place so you can identify the root cause of your possible problems
I want to password protect my windows shares: once you have done the relative set up in windows vista and ensured you can connect from another windows machine you will need to use user name and password of the Vista user to connect.
I want to password protect my MAC shared folders: Go into user account and disable guest access to shared folders is no shared folder has to be accessed without password otherwise leave it checked. Create a new user for sharing (better than giving away your password) so that this user only accesses the folders you want to share. In System preferences network select file sharing SMB and flag only the new user you have defined. Then go back to the folder section and set the permissions you like on the folder you want to share for this newly defined user.
Good Luck
Last suggestion: Select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "windows." There are numerous help articles. You can find the same articles at support.apple.com and searching for "windows network." Then narrow the product to Mac OS 10.6.