Secure file sharing Windows 7 with Leopard/Snow Leopard

[mdh95070]

Go to Control Panel.
Switch to Large Icon View in the top right corner.
Open Network and Sharing Center.
Click on Change Adapter Settings in the left column.
Right click on your network connection and choose Status.
Click Details.
Look for IPv4 Address the number by it is your samba (SMB) address.

At this point you may want to make your computers IP Address Static via your router, so that it will not change on you in the future. Each router is different so you will need to look in your manual. Some do not have this option, most notably Linksys does not have this ability, every Netgear or D-Link I have seen has this ability though. You can set a manual address on your computer but I would not recommend this on a laptop as it can be a pain when connecting to other networks.

i can access my windows 7 files just fine on my mac if i use the smb command and IP address. But, with windows xp i saw the PC's name in Finder and this helped with DHCP addressing. All i had to do was double click on the host name and i was connected. Static addressing will not work well in my house and I would like to shield my family from the complexity. any ideas? tks much

 

[velocityg4]

i can access my windows 7 files just fine on my mac if i use the smb command and IP address. But, with windows xp i saw the PC's name in Finder and this helped with DHCP addressing. All i had to do was double click on the host name and i was connected. Static addressing will not work well in my house and I would like to shield my family from the complexity. any ideas? tks much

Why won't static addressing work? You just set it in your router and are done with it. When any of your computers connect you get the same address yet the computers themselves use DHCP so when connected to another persons network you will get assigned an IP address automatically.

As for the network browser I have yet to see it work reliably with Windows computers.

If you are just trying to save people the hassle of typing in SMB addresses. Just connect to each volume then make short cuts to those volumes. Then all anyone has to do is double click on that short cut and the network volume in question will mount automatically. You can also drag the drives to your login items in System preferences that way whenever you log on to the Mac the drives will automatically mount.

On the Windows side you can write click any share you want then choose "map network drive..." and assign each share a drive letter then they will always be available in My Computer.

You should note that any auto mounting drive will throw up an error message in OS X or Windows if the host computer is off, asleep or sharing has been disabled.

 

[mdh95070]

Why won't static addressing work? You just set it in your router and are done with it. When any of your computers connect you get the same address yet the computers themselves use DHCP so when connected to another persons network you will get assigned an IP address automatically.

As for the network browser I have yet to see it work reliably with Windows computers.

If you are just trying to save people the hassle of typing in SMB addresses. Just connect to each volume then make short cuts to those volumes. Then all anyone has to do is double click on that short cut and the network volume in question will mount automatically. You can also drag the drives to your login items in System preferences that way whenever you log on to the Mac the drives will automatically mount.

On the Windows side you can write click any share you want then choose "map network drive..." and assign each share a drive letter then they will always be available in My Computer.

You should note that any auto mounting drive will throw up an error message in OS X or Windows if the host computer is off, asleep or sharing has been disabled.

Thank you for responding... DHCP works very well since most of my family uses notebook computers... one would think after so many years.... filesharing would be easier.

 

[dnew9999]

Are you using your Mac or Windows user name and password? You should be using your Windows 7 user name and password. Both are case sensitive and include any spacing etc...

Also if you look at the settings for your shared items is that username included?

Hi. This whole stream has been incredibly helpful and timely. Thanks to all.

I have my Win7 PC set up to be able to access folders on my Macbook. BUT, when I now try (using all the above suggestions) to access my Win7 PC from my Mac, I get prompted to enter my username on the Win7 PC. OK. However, I do not have a password on that Win7 account yet the MAC seems to want me to type one it -- access fails if I do not.

Any suggestions?

 

[abbala]

Thanks for great suggestions.......

 

[ebookmark]

followed all those steps....worked great for me

 

[greag20]

Problem #1) but for XP?

Hello

I was wondering if somebody knows how to solve the problem 1) of the initial post, but in XP? I.e. when accessing a folder on my Mac from XP, I'd like that Mac recognizes me as a particular user (e.g. admin)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[velocityg4]

Hello

I was wondering if somebody knows how to solve the problem 1) of the initial post, but in XP? I.e. when accessing a folder on my Mac from XP, I'd like that Mac recognizes me as a particular user (e.g. admin)?

Thanks in advance.

I have looked high and low for this answer and it really depends on if you are using XP Home/Media Center or XP Pro.

In XP Pro you can modify your log on credentials for specific computers with Home/MCE you can not. By default either version will use the Windows user name and password. So all hope is not lost for admin access on the Mac with Home/MCE.

For logging on as an admin from Home/MCE on your Mac the user name and password for the Admin user on the Mac must be exactly the same as that on the Windows box (spacing, case et. all).

For Admin access to your Mac from Windows XP Home, Media Center Edition, Vista Home or 7 Home.

1. Get any and/or all user names and passwords on the Mac that you want file sharing access to.
2. On Windows create user accounts in the user account control panel with the same user name and password as the Mac's user name and password. The Windows user name can be either the full user name or short name used by the Mac. Say on the Mac your user name is Joe Blow by default the short name will be joeblow unless you changed it. Remember this is case sensitive so if on the Mac the user name is Joe Blow then joe blow will not work.
3. Log off Windows then log on with the appropriate user name and password.

Now you should have access to all the shares that user name is authorized for. With standard accounts you will get that user's home folder, public folder and any other authorized shared folders. With admin accounts you will also get full access to connected drives along with all sub folders minus those which that user has no permissions for, such as other users home folders.

You will still need to enable file sharing in Windows and Windows File Sharing on the Mac if you do not know how I will post on that topic.

For XP Pro you do not need to add all the user accounts as you can manage stored passwords.

For this example we will assume your admin name is Joe Blow, the password is 1234 and your Mac's name is iMac.

1. Go to control panel
2. Open user accounts.
3. Open the Stored User Names and Passwords Box.
A. For a limited user account under Related Tasks choose Manage My Network Passwords.
B. For an Admin account under pick an account to change click the appropriate account. Then under Related Tasks choose Manage My Network Passwords.
4. With the Manage My Network Passwords box open click Add.
5. In the add box
A. Server is \\computer name in this case \\iMac
B. The User Name is the your user name plus computer name in this case iMac\Joe Blow
C. The password is your password in this case 1234.
6. Now you can open My Network Places and in the address bar type \\iMac and you should have access to all admin folders.

 

[velocityg4]

Hi. This whole stream has been incredibly helpful and timely. Thanks to all.

I have my Win7 PC set up to be able to access folders on my Macbook. BUT, when I now try (using all the above suggestions) to access my Win7 PC from my Mac, I get prompted to enter my username on the Win7 PC. OK. However, I do not have a password on that Win7 account yet the MAC seems to want me to type one it -- access fails if I do not.

Any suggestions?

It wants a User Name and Password used on that Mac. If you do not have one yet I believe it is required for file sharing to function between the two.

 

[Dahon]

Connected once, now won't re-connect.

So, I recently upgraded from Vista to W7 on my pc and from Tiger to SL on my Macbook Pro. I have been trying since then to get a working network between the two, whether just a single folder shared (as I had set up with Tiger/Vista) or an open network between the two.

I followed all the steps layed out by velocityg4, and was able to get my folder which I have set to share on the desktop of my pc to be seen and used by my mac once. After multiple failed attempts trying to connect from my mac, using command+k and entering the correct samba code, it just randomly worked, asked for my W7 id and pw, and poof... it was working like a champ.

I was moving some files from my mac into the shared folder on my pc when about half way through it stopped with an error stating something along the lines that one of the files I was moving was a read only and would not be copied. I clicked ok, and then my mac froze as though it was still trying to move files over. So I left it thinking that it would time out eventually. It did not. I then clicked the "stop copy" icon to the right of the meter, and it froze for a long time saying it was 'attempting to stop copy'.

I then had to force it closed and rebooted. When I rebooted, my mac no longer can connect to my workgroup. What am I missing?

Sorry for the long post, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dahon]

now working again...

Although I had rebooted each machine independently of each other, I just rebooted both machines at the same time, and was able to connect with my first attempt. Is this random, -sometimes it works / sometimes it doesn't- to be expected? Or is there a better way I can set them up to have a more consistent network?

 

[satcomer]

Although I had rebooted each machine independently of each other, I just rebooted both machines at the same time, and was able to connect with my first attempt. Is this random, -sometimes it works / sometimes it doesn't- to be expected? Or is there a better way I can set them up to have a more consistent network?

That tells me that the machines are not on the same time! Try using the same third party time servers on both the Windows 7 & the 10.6.x machines. I actually changed my windows 7 machine to use the Apple Time server and now I can connect at anytime.

 

[evilzardoz]

Would upgrading to Professional help me out?

I have 2 Win7 machines and 2 Macs and I've had all kinds of difficulty getting reliable and consistent networking between these machines. Sometimes I can connect and share and all that, sometimes I can't. Sometime I can push or pull from one computer, but not the other. Everything can see everything but the connections either drop with error -36 or the permission errors crop up in all sorts of inconsistent ways. I doubt networking is supposed to work like this.

I'm seeing this problem ever since I upgraded my PC to Windows 7 Ultimate. I enabled administrative shares (C$, D$ etc), enabled the older authentication types, installed services for unix (perhaps unrelated however this may affect things) and I'm seeing the same problem. I can usually get about a GB of data through before it drops with -36.

Has there been a solution to this problem?

 

[Dahon]

I'm seeing this problem ever since I upgraded my PC to Windows 7 Ultimate. I enabled administrative shares (C$, D$ etc), enabled the older authentication types, installed services for unix (perhaps unrelated however this may affect things) and I'm seeing the same problem. I can usually get about a GB of data through before it drops with -36.

Has there been a solution to this problem?

oddly enough, with this last reboot (where I rebooted both machines at the same time), I've been able to connect at will. However, it has dropped the connection by itself a couple times, yet each time I've been able to reconnect simply with command+k. I was able to transfer my music folder from my MBP to my PC, roughly 26g worth with no problems.

 

[maddoglx]

+1 this thread

Hey All,

This post has been the most helpful information I have found
regarding network sharing Win 7 and OSX
my macbook pro is one week old and is the first mac I have owned.
my workstation is windows 7 home so the Local Security Policy Editor
is not available does this make sharing between the computers impossible?

 

[Habari]

Thank you very much for a well laid down process however unable to get excess to
Local Security Policy on windows 7 home premium

Sorry I did not notice your query

First you will need to change the advanced sharing settings in
Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change advanced sharing settings (switch the control panel from Category to Large Icon view)

Choose the options I chose in the picture. Make sure to set a password for Windows. I could not get the Mac to connect to Windows 7 without a password protected account.

View attachment 193111

Next you will need to change some other network settings. This is a problem that came from Vista.

Goto Control Panel > Administration Tools > Local Security Policy

Go to "Local Policies > Security Options"
Then select "Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication Level".
In the window that pops up change the setting to "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session if negotiated"

View attachment 193109

Then just make sure Mac OS X and Windows 7 are in the same workgroup.

Check or change for Windows 7 in Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings

View attachment 193110

In Mac OS X



Then to connect reliably from Mac OS X type in the Samba address (smb://192.168.xxx.xxx) through Finder > Connect to Server (Command + K). The network browser in Mac OS X is unreliable and always has been.

 

[nicko7i]

Thanks, works perfectly!

I had file sharing more or less working, but it broke when I installed W7 SP1.

Your instructions not only got it working, but got it working securely, something that has eluded me for years.

I'm inexpressibly grateful. Thanks, velocityg4!

 

[chrono1081]

It worked well between XP and OS X. Then they screwed it up with Vista and made networking even worse with 7 and the home group. It took me quite a while to get file sharing to even work between 7 and XP.

Too bad I can not get secure file sharing both ways yet. When I have the time I will hammer away at it some more and try to get some results.

I completely agree. XP was fine for the most part. Vista screwed stuff up and 7 made it worse.

I wasn't the one to work on the networking aspect of it at work, but I know the guys who did found some setting in gpedit that took care of it since a few offices are allowed to use wifi and share files (and some have macs, some have win machines). That being said I don't believe you will have gpedit available if you have a home version but that could be a start.

EDIT: Oops, necro thread.