How does a windows client (XP) access an SMB share on OS X Server (10.6 snow leopard)?

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I work in a small office in which the server and most of the work stations run Mac OS X 10.6. We are using OS X Server 10.6 for file sharing. I am not an official IT guy, but there is no one else to take care of this stuff so I have learned as I go and manage the server - which is why I am asking this question. I don't really know what i am doing. I have to learn by trial and error.

Anyway, all the mac users can access the AFP service without any trouble. Since some Windows users occassionally need to access the file server as well, I turned on the SMB service and set up the same shares with the same permissions as I had done with the AFP service.

However... I have no idea how to configure a windows machine to see these shares.

How does one configure a windows XP client to access an SMB share from an OS X server? And is this similar for a Win7 client?

aaron parr

Posted 2011-09-15T03:47:45.617

Reputation: 15

Answers

0

The main problem you have will be name resolution.

You can probably access the server right on Windows by simply connecting to to the server by simply typing the IP Address form of a UNC (\\192.0.2.1) into the Windows Explorer address bar.

If you want people to be able to connect by name, you may need to setup DNS on your server and setup DNS records for your server and other resources on your network. Then point your clients and the DNS server for name resolution. You can set your DNS server to forward to your ISP, or whatever upstream DNS server you want to use for resolution.

access by UNC

Zoredache

Posted 2011-09-15T03:47:45.617

Reputation: 18 453

I've set up the DNS and a hostname. But I'm not sure I understand you correctly. Entering the name of the server or IP address merely accesses the server on port 80 and thus displays its web page. I want to access the SMB share. How do I do that? – aaron parr – 2011-09-15T04:24:20.473

Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer. – Zoredache – 2011-09-15T04:28:00.103

Ah... I had not realized that distinction. So it works on XP. I can see the shares, but the problem now is that it is not allowing me to select a user name and password. Log in appears to be as a Guest. This means that the protected shares are not accessible. – aaron parr – 2011-09-15T17:28:20.947

Asked: 2011-09-15T03:47:45.617

Viewed: 2 208 times

Active: 2011-09-15T04:28:47.857