# Mac OSX on Windows Network Problems



## DiligentlyDoubtful (Oct 5, 2005)

Hi everyone, I've got a bit of a problem here. I set up a Windows Network and all of the machines running XP see each other and connect to each other through the workgroup just fine. However, I need to get my Mac on there. It's a G5 running OSX 10.4.2. When I try to Connect to Server I can see my workgroup name on there and then I can see one other computer on there all the time and can connect to it without any problems. The other two XP machines on the network appear under the workgroup name some of the time however even when they appear I still cannot connect to them. When I try I get the error, "The alias "xxx" could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found." (that's the best I can remember, I can't duplicate the error at this time). I don't know how to fix the alias or have the computers show up in my workgroup all of the time. 

They are all on the same workgroup with individual unique names. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!


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## pridefpsb17 (Oct 14, 2005)

Did you have any luck figuring this out.

I am having the same problem.


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## 91rioja (Oct 14, 2005)

Try connecting via SMB.

In your Connect to Server window try using smb:\\servername\sharename

See if that works


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## 91rioja (Oct 14, 2005)

You also may want to look at the following site.  It has a great deal of information on integrating Tiger and Windoz.

http://www.macwindows.com/tiger.html


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## mersyone (Oct 16, 2005)

91rioja said:
			
		

> Try connecting via SMB.
> 
> In your Connect to Server window try using smb:\\servername\sharename
> 
> See if that works



yeah I've HEARD that's the TRUE way to go.


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## -Monkey- (Oct 19, 2005)

91rioja said:
			
		

> Try connecting via SMB.
> 
> In your Connect to Server window try using smb:\\servername\sharename
> 
> See if that works



Shouldn't that be *smb://servername/sharename* ? Otherwise the Mac prefixes it with afp:.

I can't connect to SMB shares on Windows servers from Tiger Server either way anyway. Nor can Windows clients map to SMB shares on the Mac. I can login on the Mac with my AD account OK, meaning my UserID and P/W are being accepted by the AD server, yet cannot map to SMB shares on the Mac from my Windows machine with the same ID and P/W. All permissions on the Mac and Windows SMB shares are fine btw.

Ah well, mustn't moan - it only took me about two weeks to be able to login on the Mac with an AD account. 'Easy integration' my ar*e! Try integrating OS X into a huge corporate Windows network, where even daring to suggest changes to the sacred AD schema can get you shot!

If anyone can help with the SMB connections problem (without schema changes) I'd be ever so ever so grateful, even buy you a beer.

Thanks.


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## -Monkey- (Oct 20, 2005)

Just to update on my previous post, I can now connect to Windows SMB shares from a Mac.

The 'solution' was to use the IP address rather than the DNS name of the Windows server hosting the share, i.e. in Connect to Server use smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/sharename. 

Presumably the Mac can't resolve the DNS name for some reason, whereas the IP address is fine.

Now all I need to do is work out how to get Windows clients to access the shares on the Mac server. Any ideas anyone?


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## 91rioja (Oct 20, 2005)

Monkey:  You are correct about the slashes; Got them ackbasswards (Unix, Dos, Mac, I can never remember them all).  As for the DNS, it depends on if you are on a private network with its own DNS (like here in my company), or using a public DNS.  One trick I have found is to edit the Mac's hosts table through the terminal and add the IP address and name of the box, so you don't have to remember IP addresses.  For the other way around, you are going to have to use Samba to allow the PC to connect to the Mac.  I would suggest to go to http://samba.org to obtain the documentation on Samba.  It should help you through the connection setup.


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## Roniin (Oct 20, 2005)

I have the same problem with my Ibook and my windows XP machine. I can view shares on my Mac but not on the XP. I can see the alias on my Mac but receive the same missing original location error message. Im going to attempt the method you suggested


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## canders5 (Jan 14, 2006)

I have the same basic problem.  After turning on windows file sharing and adding my powerbook as a network place on my PC, I can see and copy file from my Mac public folder.  However, when I try to connect to the PC from the Mac (using smb://192.XXX.X.X/PhotoVault/) the Mac cannot locate the PC sharedrive and won 't make the connection.  

I would appreciate and help.  This seems to be a common problem.


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## scuzy (Jan 17, 2006)

I have the same issue here too on my powerbook. The only time it worked was when i was still on 10.3 Panther. Ever since i upgraded to tiger i now no longer able to see my windows machines. I am using tiger  10.4.4


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## maria.mojo (Jan 17, 2006)

> Just to update on my previous post, I can now connect to Windows SMB shares from a Mac.
> 
> The 'solution' was to use the IP address rather than the DNS name of the Windows server hosting the share, i.e. in Connect to Server use smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/sharename.



I have a somewhat similar problem as -Monkey- I am able to connect to my windows shares from a Mac, however, once I enter my valid U/P I get the following message: "Could not connect to the server because the name or password is not correct."

Because I cannot connect to my shares via SMB, I am forced to use AFP and with AFP, I have missing files, folders, and also a terrible file naming issue that is truncating long filenames to 8 characters (that I cannot even expand or hover over to read the rest of the file name...it's a guessing game)  I heard that using SMB will solve the naming and missing file issue, but I can't get SMB to cooperate....

Have a brand new G5 at work with Tiger...our office uses Windows Server 2003 Standard.

Anyone have any clues? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!


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## New2Mac06 (Jan 17, 2006)

great post, i just got a lot from this.


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## canders5 (Jan 18, 2006)

I found my problem.  I had two firewalls active on my PC.  The Windows firewall of course was allowing the share volumes to be accessed but my McCaffey firewall was not.  When I allowed access from my Powerbook IP address everything suddenly worked fine.  Go figure.


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## Satcomer (Jan 21, 2006)

I don't know if this will help you but on the MacFixIt front page they had a possible fix for Active Directory (listed on  the front page Jan. 21).  In summary it said " try deleting then re-adding the Active Directory domain in Directory Access (located in Applications/Utilities)". 

I hope this may help.


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