Mac OS X and Windows XP Home Networking
This page was last updated on February 22, 2008.
See also:
- http://www.macwindows.com/tiger.html
- http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106471
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040/en-us
To allow a Mac OS X computer access to files on a Windows XP computer over a home network, the Windows XP computer must have Windows XP Professional installed, and "Simple File Sharing" disabled.
Windows XP Home uses "Simple File Sharing" by default and a user cannot disable the feature, therefore a network user with a Macintosh computer running OS X is not able to access files on a Windows XP computer. Although a connection may exist, and the two computers may be able to ping each other, the Windows computer will not allow the Mac computer any access. The most likely error code that the Mac user will see is Error Code 36: <"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some of the data in smb://........ could not be read or written. (Error code -36)">.
By looking in the error log on the Mac computer, via Console, several error codes are possible, but the most likely to be seen is Error Code 36, and the error log shown in Console in OS X (/Applications/Utilities/) will show a "raperr = 5" error.
Windows (with its Windows workgroup network protocol) will prompt the Macintosh user to enter a workgroup name, and a username and password. But in the reverse direction, the Macintosh computer will not prompt the Windows user for their username or password.
Requiring a username and password combination will let you determine precisely which users can access specific files and printers on the Windows computer. The disadvantage is that it requires you to set up identical user accounts for each network user on every Windows computer, and then grant these users permissions to view and modify shared files and folders.
With Simple File Sharing in effect, any Windows XP computer that connects to your network will have access to all files, folders, and printers shared from a Windows XP computer, with no security enforcement of any kind. This has the advantage of eliminating all worries about having to manage accounts and passwords on multiple computers. You don't get to pick and choose who gets access and who doesn't. With Simple File Sharing in effect, everyone with a Windows XP computer gets access to every shared resource, without being prompted for a username or password. They are automatically granted access to files and folders using the permissions granted to the Guest account, even if Guest is disabled for direct logins.
Simple File Sharing is always used on XP Home Edition, and cannot be disabled. This means that anyone can use any resource shared by a computer running XP Home Edition. This may, or may not be a good thing.
Simple File Sharing is optional on XP Professional, when the computer is part of a workgroup network. It's enabled by default when Windows is installed, but you can disable it if you want to use the user-level security on files and/or shared resources.
If you disable Simple File Sharing, a remote Mac OS X user will have to supply a workgroup name, a username and a password valid on the Windows XP computer in order to use a shared resource on the Windows XP computer. On the Windows XP computer, it vastly simplifies things if you set up an identical account for each user. For each user, pick a username and password, and use that same name and password on every computer on the network.
The least complicated way of sharing folders between a Windows XP Professional-based PC and Mac OS X is to *not* use simple file sharing (XP Home does not include this option):
- Right-click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and choose Explore.
- Within the window that opens go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options.
- Now switch to the View tab and scroll all the way down to the bottom under Advanced settings.
- Uncheck in the box next to "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)" and click OK.
- Reboot (restart) both computers.
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