Forget IPV6 in toto, ditto homegroups.

SD

On older versions of OS X, its actually quite easy.

Did you try the methods out there that involve booting into single user mode and doing some black screen magic ? :cool:

Mixture:
Ah right, ok, back to Black Magic mode. Well, the latest is I've totally screwed up the log in. I created a 2nd account and logged in with that. Now I can't log in with the admin. which before was automatic but now requires a password.:ugh::ugh:

Pelikal,

Don't blame me if this causes you problems, but on OS X 10.3 it goes something like this ....

1/ Turn off computer
2/ Turn on whilst holding down apple and s
3/ Once it's all booted and you're on a black screen type /sbin/mount -uw /
4/ Type/sbin/SystemStarter
5/ Type passwd XXXXXX where XXXXX is the username of your admin account. Enter desired new password when prompted.
6/ Type reboot

If you don't know the username, before step 5, type :
nireport . /users name realname and use the value from the first column

Job done.

and in case you need to reset the Keychain

Resetting your keychain in Mac OS X

Point to consider is that - as far as I can remember - to log onto a shared drive on a windows PC from a Mac, the Mac needs to be logged in with a user name / password which also exists as a user on the PC, and the password cannot be blank . i.e. there HAS to be a password on the account

Wot they said.

1. Ignore IPv6. Lots of stuff can't work with it yet, and it's another complication you don't need.

2. Avoid Homegroups. I had a nasty experience with one some years ago. It scrambled my computer and very nearly lost all my "stuff" - it locked all the hard drives it could find. Just use Workgroup.

3. It's exactly as Gertrude says: sometimes it just works, and sometimes it doesn't. I managed to network my Windows PC and laptop and a Linux PC that I used out in the "workshop". I think Mac is like Linux - you have to dabble with Samba and geekspeak stuff to set it up, but it does then work.

Well, it is BSD behind the GUI.... so you're in the ballpark in terms of concepts. :cool:

Mixture, sorry my last post contained a touch of frustration.

Ok, went into black screen. Got:

If you want to make modifications to files, run /sbin/fsck -y and then /sbin/mount -uw which I did.

I did your step 4 /sbin/SystemStarter

I then had the message: Waiting for Apple File Service about 25 times, followed by Startup complete.

Step 5 had no effect, just localhost:/ root#

Then did reboot, so no harm done. Any further thoughts on the password reset? As I stated, I have my original install disks which I purchased.

I wasn't expecting this detour from my original aim but perhaps it will make me careful with passwords and namings. Thank you for your patience!

Hmm... ok, there are various options for that step depending on your version of OS X.... guess I gave you the wrong one.... but no harm done. I'll go back to the drawing board.

I'll try to do some research and see. When the install disk boots up, on the very first screen, do you see any menus ? (drop down type, like the usual file edit etc. ones you see on OSX). Is there any option in those menus that looks like password reset ?

Password sorted
 

Booted again with the install disk and used the reset password option and it worked. I think when I tried it before I didn't save it. Anyhow, done. Quite simple actually!:hmm:

Now, what was it I was trying to achieve? Oh, yeah, something about file sharing between my Mac and 2 PCs.

Consensus is I forget IPv6. I think I'll delete the workgroup stuff on the Tosh, that just confused me and I'll start again. Somewhere.


Milo, thanks, note taken.

In windows 7 use the WORK NETWORK option to set it up, providing the other 2 are live on the router already it should work like a charm.................then again..

My 2p:

- forget IPv6 but do NOT disable it from the network stack (as Microsoft places great faith in it and uses it in a lot of internal communication for processes which get their knickers in a twist if protocols are missing). You may need to kow about IPv6 shortly, but it's looking more and more like you'd only ever need it at the router level rather than on a home network.

- homegroup is fine, and is basically akin to "domain networking for dummies". It's certainly got just as many quirks and workarounds as workgroup computing, and there's a lot of FUD spread on threads such as this as to the effects of something people don't know too much about. e.g. Keef's drive locking would only be related to permissions needing resetting at the root, which is the same for any Windows box in certain aspects.

".....as far as I can remember - to log onto a shared drive on a windows PC from a Mac, the Mac needs to be logged in with a user name / password which also exists as a user on the PC, and the password cannot be blank . i.e. there HAS to be a password on the account"

That is correct.

Mac

rm -rf /

Account/Login password again.
 

I must be being really thick here. I thought I had reset my password. When I login to the Mac on start-up, I use the new password which is 6 characters long.

When I view account information, the password field indicates 7characters for that account. Are these passwords different? Thought I had this sorted. Thanks.

Found an old tech document for OS X 10.2 that said ....

Mixture, thanks for that, I thought I was going totally bonkers. So I guess there is a another reason why I can't connect properly to the Tosh, more to explore.

I assume that user name / password combo are a valid account on the PC?

Milo, thanks, I need to revisit all of that. I have a feeling I've added an unwanted complication somewhere. No doubt I'll be back! Cheers.

Well I'm back...SOME SUCCESS!!

I can now see my entire (extremely messy) Mac desktop on the Toshiba (XP Pro).

On the Tosh, I went Start ˃ My Network Places ˃ Entire Network ˃ Microsoft Windows Network and I saw Workgroup. So I double-clicked on that and to my surprise I saw Mac OSX (my-computer). A few clicks and there I was! So I can now copy files to the Mac.

Thing is I still can't log into the workgroup from the Mac which is what I would like to do.

I go Connect to Server.

Server Address:

smb://(Tosh IP address)

Click Connect, I get:

SMB/CIFS Filesystem Authentification

Enter username and password for (ME):

Workgroup/Domain:
WORKGROUP

Username:
This is where I'm confused. It comes up automatically with the Tosh computer/system name which is different to my account name. The account I'm using on the Tosh is Administrator with a simple password.

Password:
The password which I login as Administrator on start-up.

The error msg I get on the Mac is:

The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" could not be read or written. (error code -36).

I know to an extent this has already been covered by previous replies but I'm trying to consolidate it.

I'm actually still unsure whether I should be using the Macs user details or the Tosh user details! I guess it doesn't really matter that I can't get into the PC from the Mac as least I can copy files to the Mac from the Tosh which was the idea. I would like to know what I was doing wrong though.

Is there another way of connecting to the PC? ie I'm using smb://etc etc.

When I get the files sorted out on the Mac I can then think about transferring them to the HP (Windows7).

Sorry about the long-winded post and hope I've made it clear where I am now. Thanks for all the assistance as I have partially fulfilled my aim!:ok:

Unlike a homegroup (or Windows server domain) you don't "log in to a workgroup" per se, as it's not a shared set of services at all other than for computer browsing purposes (which in previous posts on the subject I pointed out has been broken/depracated since 1995 anyway as the browse-mastering "byte" in Windows 95 should have been a "long", and hence resulted in many truncated browse lists in larger networks with Win95).

In workgroups, therefore, your ability (or otherwise) to log into a 'server' is dictated solely by the permissions set on the serving server.

Irrespective of any simplification performed by some structures (such as domains, homegroups, or 3rd party Samba-esque services), ALL Windows (CIFS/SMB)-based services are logged into via the construct:

"device\username" (without quotes, and ensuring you're using the correct backslash rather than forwardslash).

"device" in a workgroup is the NetBIOS name of the PC. e.g. "Tosh-PC" (or whatever you're using). Hence in that example your username would be "tosh-pc\administrator" (again without quotes).

Definitely, as mentioned above, use the credentials of the serving computer, as that's how the resource has been secured. Your PC has no knowledge of your Mac in this instance so how would it ever be able to discern between it's username being valid or invalid?
SMB = Server Message Block (aka CIFS - Common Internet File System) - it's the Microsoft originated protocol for file operations, so you're using the right thing.