Mac and PC networking

[martinm]

I have an ethernet installed in my home, based around a Sprint Broadband Wireless connection and a Win2K Pro machine to share the connection. It works beautifully. However, some of my poor, misguided friends have Mac laptops. They'll come over sometimes, and we'd like to be able to swap MP3's and stuff over the ethernet. I know Win2K Server products have a Services for Macintosh package, but is there anything comparable (and preferrably cheap) available. They can get online with their laptops, no problem. Thus a connection is obviously possible. Anyways, any help would be most appreciated.

 

[Workin']

The services that come with Win2k Server are very slick. That's what I use to connect my PowerBook to my PC ethernet network for file sharing.

A free solution is to run a shareware ftp server program on one of the Windows machines and transfer files that way.

Another solution is to get PCMacLan and install it on each Windows machine whose files you want to make accessible.

Or get DAVE and install it on the Macs who want to see the files. I used DAVE on my Mac until I got Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

 

[Tallgeese]

<< A free solution is to run a shareware ftp server program on one of the Windows machines and transfer files that way. >>

I've found this type of setup a very cost-effective (read: cheap) and, believe it or not, quite intuitive solution for my clients who need to share files between PCs and Macs, but can't afford a full-blown server (read: M$ extorti...err, licensing fees).

 

[martinm]

Yeah, my friends have Dave, but we've had lots of troubles with it. Their machines kept locking up trying to copy files. We got it set up eventually so that you could view the other computers shares (Mac from PC and PC from Mac). Copying files meant that you'd open up the remote computer and copy to the local computer. Trying to copy to the remote computer resulted in the Macs locking up. We eventually got everything across, but it was quite an ordeal. I hadn't thought of setting up an FTP server, but Win2K Pro has one that I think should work nicely. Thanks for the help, and if there's any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them

 

[sleepwalker]

Sharity works well for Mac OS X.