Comments on: File Sharing from Windows Vista to OS X

By: Liz Holzer

Liz Holzer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:37:40 +0000

thanks so much- i got everything set up to the point where i could see the network, but it wouldn’t let me log on- the tip about logging in using the IP is really the turning point.

Awesome, useful and very clearly described steps.

By: Darren Wilcox

Darren Wilcox — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:05:18 +0000

Thanks for the tip’s on this one. I have been trying to get file sharing setup for the best part of a day. Then I came across your blog entry. I followed your steps and all is talking great now. Many thanks dude

By: Bomma

Bomma — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:17:39 +0000

Followed the instrutions here to the “T” connected to the mac ok , and files dropped in the folder on the mac can be seen on the pc, still get empty folder the other way around???

By: Yorick

Yorick — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:13:24 +0000

It’s times like this that make me wish I could spell Haleluija!

Now to sift through the rest of the thread if the accessing Vista from OS question is answered.

By: Brett

Brett — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:20:16 +0000

For those who are continually getting password errors, remember that case sensitivity is important in both username and password – this caught me out a little, thanks Rocco.

Also, has anyone else had an issue where on their Vista machine, when transferring files from the Mac it is very fast (over 400Mbps on a Gbps LAN with jumbo frames on!), but when copying the same file back it is extraordinarily slow – maybe 100 times slower or more?

I’ve tried Blueshifters recommendation to use WinSCP, which improves the situation, but still VERY slow transfer…

By: MikeG

MikeG — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:37:40 +0000

The login.password issue was exactly what I was looking for – had both machines talking to each other. Then I upgraded from an old router to a wireless one for the new Vista laptop and discovered that the Mac was no longer able to connect to the PC. It saw the PC, but was unable to see the share points I’d set up.

After repeatedly going through all the networking and sharing panels on both machines, plus the screens in the router config, I finally realized that both the Norton Firewall and the Windows firewalls were on at the same time.

I turned off the Norton firewall and boom – I could connect!

Here’s another trick I figured out because I cannot seem to set the Mac (OSX 10.4) so that areas outside the home directory can be accessed via network, such as files on other volumes.

I turned on the ftp function in the Mac Sharing panel, and use an ftp client to connect. When I connect via ftp, I can access the whole machine’s hard drive space except for protected directories.

By: Drew

Drew — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:22:27 +0000

Chris, thank you so much for writing this article! I’ve been trying for about an hour to figure this out running between my Mac and my new Vista computer again and again. I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working like it did in XP where I just put in my username and password. At least that’s one more Vista bug to file into my head!

PS- I probably could have saved all that time by Google searching this right away! But first I configured a VNC server and client to look at my Mac from my Vista PC, so I could stop running back and forth from room to room. Oh well, live and learn!

Thanks man!

Drew

By: egemon

egemon — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:22:02 +0000

In the point 3 of your tutorial you say that in order to access to your mac files you have to insert a user,password when prompted.You are suggesting to do so following the combinationMacIPAddress\YourMacUsername .I’m doing this inserting all the possible and immaginable combinations ,but I get always an error.Any help would be highly appreciated.Thank you very much and sorry for my english.
Egemon…

By: Gio Drakes

Gio Drakes — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:56:28 +0000

IT WORKED!!! Thank you, I luvs you :o) I can see my pictures from my Mac Mini from my Windows Vista laptop without having to move the external drive back and forth :o)

By: 8string

8string — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:23:40 +0000

The router issue may be real, in as much as there was a similar problem I had after the Apple OSX network driver update last summer. Apple support told me the same kind of story as MS is doing. I didn’t really believe it, but did upgrade my router software, (an ActionTec on Qwest’s network). It fixed the problem. here’s what happened then:

Windows XP and Vista machines plus Apple OSX (.4) worked fine prior to my upgrading the network patch by Apple (last August?). Immediately, my OSX stopped communicating to the network via wireless and nothing I could do would fix it. Wired connections worked fine. Windows machines continued to run fine. I upgraded the router to the latest software rev. and the OSX immediately starting working again. I was down for over 2 weeks. until I got this figured out.

So it *might* be that the Vista network drivers are slowing stuff down, because they are implementing newer protocols (including IPV6) and some routers may encounter problems. worth noting is that when I updated my Vista network drivers for the card I was running, my Vista machine got faster on the network. Legacy drivers again?

By: Guillermo Guzman

Guillermo Guzman — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:29:53 +0000

The IP solution for connecting from my Toshiba to my iBookG4 has worked for me, speeds are really good on ethernet, but horrible on wireless.
What I can’t do is connect from the Toshiba to my iBooG3, which is running OSX 10.3.9, login/pass are “incorrect”.
I also can’t find the way to connect from the Mac to the Toshiba.
Has anyone found a solution to these issues?

By: mousse

mousse — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:24:26 +0000

Really it’s not a Vista bug but a OSX authentication trouble. In fact also Linux use Samba and here it works perfecty.

By: Tim Mason

Tim Mason — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:58:15 +0000

Thanks for this. The tip certainly works – but, as others have pointed out, transfer is very slow. Reading blueshifter’s message solved that problem, and I am now happily typing this while transferring the contents of my iMac’ hard disk over to the new portable with an acceptable degree of speed. WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) does a fine job

By: ken gerber

ken gerber — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:25:08 +0000

I just bought a new laptop … It is brand new and supports Vista OS … I would like to shoot the son of a bitch that sold me this machine…I asked him before I bought it if indeed all these horror stories I had heard about VISTA were true… I am running XP on the desktop and going through a LINKSYS router . My last laptop was also running XP…Never had a problem. I bought this computer yesterday and doubt if I have had three hours sleep … It will in no way configure with the router ,in fact I could not even get online plugging directly into the modem on the wonderful new system…Isnt it amazing how this devide ( computers) are supposed to make our lives easier and less stressful and make us informative when in reality technology in this field has made all of us personal slaves to this form of communicating….
Life was so much easier before the advent of the personal computer … Think of the times you were happiest in life…I can assure you it was not while you were online … The irony of all this. I used to live at 376 Addison Street in Palo Alto 77-80 and it had a garage behind the house that was rather delapitated … I was aware that Hewlett/Packard used to use this garage for something or other … In my wildest dreams I could never imagine that within tens years of my moving out of that house and using that garage that it would someday be a historical landmark…There is now a plaque in front of the house indicatig this is where computer technology began … It boggles the mind … I envy the people that are still technical rubes and live their lives without thinking of logging on to see who is doing what to whom and what they can buy for a discount…
I thought Bill Gates was a good guy and as of late his charitable work was commendable…Now I have a laptop with a new advanced operating system that is the most stressful thing I ever encountered …VISTA is junk … XP was fine and why would anyone change a working system with something that is uncompatable with everything else …MONEY …Microsoft has done it again …. I am surprised there are not a million class action suits against them… The people that praise VISTA are happy just for the fact that they could get online wirelessly…I have not heard ANYONE say what a great improvement it is over XP … All the comments have been about being able to get online …NOTHING about the system … Cest la vie …
K. Gerber
S.F.CA.

By: Garry

Garry — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:48:57 +0000

Hey, great tips but blueshifter has a point, anyway, and idea on how to do what blueshifter said but for the other way around? Remote login into Vista from OS X because I’m having problems connecting the normal way.