Problems Connecting Vista With Mac OS X

Computers are designed to be interoperable, meaning you should be able to share your files and network between Macs and Windows PCs without much difficulty. However, problems can still arise from the network, networking method or issues with either operating system.

The Facts

1. Macintosh OS X can automatically recognize and read from networked hard drives shared by the Windows operating system. In some cases, you may not be able to write to those drives from a Macintosh (depending upon the formatting method used when the drive was initialized). Windows computers can read and write to shared Macintosh drives if they are shared using either SMB (server message block) or FTP (file transfer protocol); drives shared via AFP (AppleShare file protocol) are usually not available to Windows computers.

Bonjour Autoconfigure

2. Bonjour (previously called Rendezvous) is an automatic protocol that allows networked computers to advertise which services they make available to other computers. It is installed by default on Mac OS X, and an optional install on Windows. Two computers running Bonjour should automatically appear as available on each others network utilities, such as a network drive selection box.

Resolving Network Issues

3. If the computers are not automatically visible to each other, open the Internet preferences on each computer to determine its IP (Internet protocol) address. This is located in System Preferences > Network on Mac OS X, and Network > Properties on Vista. You may be able to connect the computers by telling one to open the IP address of the other; for example, connect to a Mac sharing a drive by FTP at 10.0.0.3 by entering "ftp://10.0.0.3" in a network or Web browser. If the two IP numbers are completely different (i.e., 10.0.0.3 and 192.168.0.2), they are running on different networks, so check your network connections and turn off any network interfaces you are not using.

Reverse Direction

4. An easy way to solve problems is to try doing the same thing in the reverse direction: if your Windows drive wont appear on your Mac, try sharing the Mac drive and opening it on Windows.

Try the Internet or "SneakerNet"

5. Finally, many local network problems can be solved by using the Internet to send files, or by physically transferring a USB drive from one computer to another. (This is nicknamed "SneakerNet" for the act of walking from one computer to another.) Network utilities such as DropBox provide an easy way for two computers to share files.

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