Alright.. I am struggling!!! I am a NEW MAC user and love it, but I really want to set up my home network. I will explain my situation. I have a cable internet connection at home, so I bought a NetGear DSL/CABLE router. I hooked it up and bingo, both my MAC and my DELL PC can access the internet. That's great, now I want them to access each other. I am not very proficient at networking but I am sure that I should be able to access files from each system and possibly share a printer. The problem is that I don't know how to set up either system very well for networking. Is there someone out there that can walk me through this process? I would really appreciate it. If you need anymore information you may ask.

Frustrated new MAC user.

What operating system is the Dell pc running? Is it Windows XP? Windows 9x/ME?

I don't know how Mac's talk to PC's, but I assume they use some variant of Samba in OSX.

The Dell PC is running XP and the MAC is running OS X.......

Never thought I'd find myself using TechTV for anything, ever, but lookie here:

TechTV Mac Tip: Networking OS X and Windows

Hope this helps!

few things...

share something on your xp box. right click a folder and select file sharing. when you are done with the wizard involved you should see a hand at the bottom of the folder.

enter in the exact name of the windows machine. not the ip address. start>controlpanel>system>computer name <-- its listed in there.

Another good link is here

techtv's guide looks easy