Connecting Windows to Mac's

Question

I have recently installed a Mac G5, power book and a Mac Mini in addition to a Windows PC. I have a wireless Network and that works fine as far as Mac’s seeing my windows machine.
I am having some difficulty with the Windows machine seeing the Mac’s. I have found the only way I can do this is as follows.
Go to My Network Places.
Add a Network Place.
Choose another Network Location.
Then I have to type in the IP address of the Mac I wish to access.
This all works but as the IP address’s are assigned dynamically if I start the Mac’s in a different order they will get different addresses and then the names and passwords will be incorrect. Is there an easier way of doing this?
Thanks
Mitch

Answer 1

I am also trying to get a Windows/Apple net to work. I was forwearded to this page:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n107083
which helps a lot- gets windows file sharing up. DO NOT FORGET TO GET ALL WORKGROUP NAMES THE SAME... and make sure to change Apple and MS comps from default "Workgroup" default name...
I am having another problem, and I thought I would bounce this off you, and see if you have any ideas.
I have an existing Microsoft network, and my iMac is joining into that. I have gotten in and set up Windows File Sharing, workgroup names, etc- all seems fine. It is a "g" wireless network, and has high connectivity- all looks good there.
I have 4 computers in the network. I have one computer, MEDIA, which is my media computer, and holds all my music files. I have a lot, mostly in WAV format (which is large- 50 megs or so a song). I set up iTunes to see the music directory on MEDIA (Though I use another computer to "manage" the music).
So, my problem is that these files seem to big for the Apple network to handle- I get "rebuffering" and audio drops every 15-20 seconds. (Perhaps I should also note I did set iTunes buffer to Large in Prefs). As a test, I moved a WAV from MEDIA to WIN-1, and tried to play on Apple- same problem.
As a further test, I played a WAV from MEDIA on Apple, and got the drops. Concurrently, I started playing the SAME WAV on LAPTOP- it played fine, O skips at all. So I added WIN-2 playing the SAME WAV (so, now Apple, WIN-2 and LAPTOP ALL playing the same song, slightly staggered) All Windoze computers played fine, with no drops; the Apple was silent more than played.
Now things are better playing mp3's- but I still notice 1-2 drops per song.
Now this might not be noticed when surfing the web or e-mail, but with audio, it is pretty obvious there is some problem in my network. At least as far as the Apple is concerned. I would think there should be more "headroom" in the "g" wireless network than to choke on a streaming WAV file- it does show a full 54mbs connect.
Any ideas of things I can try to make the connect better?
Thanks!
Dave