Connect remote Windows 7 laptop to OS X Lion Server

Question

Hello
We have a Mini running OS X Server (Lion) and serving 10 MacBook Pros and 1 Windows 7 Professional laptop. We only use it as a fileserver with different shares. One "shared share" for all and one privat for each user totalluing 12 shares.
All 11 laptops connects easily to the server and everything works like a charm - as long as the computers are on the local network - meaning as long as people are at the office. Windowes sharing IS enabled and the user have no problems as long as he is at the office.
From home (or other places) all the Macs can connect to the server through cmd-K and afp://123.123.123.12 (fictional IP-address) and then typing username and password.
But I can't conenct the Windows 7 laptop from remote. Probably because I don't know how. Where's the cmd-k command (or something similar) in Windows 7 Professional?
I have tried to map a network drive typing all kinds of paths:
\\12.123.123.12\
//12.123.123.12/
\\12.123.123.12\Fileserver\Peter
\\12.123.123.12\Peter\
//12.123.123.12/Fileserver/Peter
//12.123.123.12/Peter
smb:/12.123.123.12/Fileserver/Peter
smb:/12.123.123.12/Peter
smb:/12.123.123.12/
None of them even takes us to the place, where we can type the username and password.
After a while, we get a message that says: "The folder you entered does not appear to be valid. Please choose another" or "Windows requires a share to publish to, please try another location".
I have no idea what the difference is between / and \ and when to use what.
I also also don't understand the meaning of Domain - a word that occurs all the time when I try to google this.
Does it have anything to do with what I am trying to accomplish?
All tips and suggestions welcome. I'm a novice with Windows and need clear instructions/directions.
Peter

Answer 1

Hello Scotte525
No, I am not using VPN. I have enabled it on the server, but we don'øt need it to connect from outside. On the Macs we just type cmd-K and afp://IP-address and then we are prompte for username and password.
I had hope something similar was available on the Windows 7 computer, but i can't make it work.
And I don't know how to use VPN from the Windows laptop.
If I do what you suggest = Window-key plus R and type like you wrote \\IP-address\ I am told I cannot make a connection.
However!!!!! When I clicked "diagnose this issue" after a while the Windows computer told me that "the print and file sharing ressource (IP-address) is online but isn't responding to connection attempts.
So now I have to start looking at the server, where close to everything is enabled (and the Mac's connect without problems, so what is it that isn't responding? This is very confusing). If you have any hints (or have experince in setting up a Mac OS X server to give access to Windows 7 PC(s) I would be most grateful for your help.
Kind regards,
Peter