Network Windows 7 and Mac

Question

This is my first Mac computer (a MacBook Pro) and loving it! What I'm not loving though is the inconsistency of networking files between my main system and the Mac.

So long story short, I've Googled around and the fastest solution I found was on Windows 7, typing in "RUN" then "\ip address", then the login appears, log in and I'm in my Mac's files. The problem with this is that it's VERY inconsistent. More often than not, it won't let me connect to the Mac. I know it's not my main PC because other machines throughout the house connect just fine to each other while at the very same time I'm held back on the Mac.

My question is: is there a better way, a more consistent way to network between Windows 7 and Mac that doesn't involve me running back and forth with a thumb drive?

Answer 1

I am assuming that you just want to copy paste files/folders from your main (Windows) machine to the Mac or vice versa.

You can do this other way around (using Mac) pretty easily. In your Mac go to the Finder and in the Go menu in the menu bar you see "Connect to Server…". Use this option and enter the IP address of your Windows machine. Then login with your Windows ID and password.

Now unless you unmount this connection you will see your Windows machine as an external drive in your left side of your Finder windows and you will always be connected. If you want to close the connection, you can simply click on the eject button on the Windows drive which should be on your left pane in the Finder window (which shows Macintosh hard drive, Applications etc.). Note that this requires your Windows machine to have file sharing on.

You could also install an ssh/scp program on Windows (such as that included in Cygwin) and use that to transfer files (turn on Remote Login in the Mac's Sharing preference pane).