Well, it's going to be very difficult to diagnose the problem if the only information we're given is "it won't connect". Can you elaborate on this a little? One of the first things to test in a network connection is pinging from a shell. In Windows, you can get a shell by opening the Command Prompt. In Mac OS X, open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal. From there, simply type ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx , where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the other computer. Hit Control-C to terminate. If it returns packets, there's a network connection.

Do the Macs work with each other? What are your IP address settings? Also, make sure you've disabled any firewalls when attempting to figure out the cause of the problem. These programs intended for ensuring your safety will often be the cause of mysterious network trouble.

On the MAC go to Terminal and type in 'netstat' this should tell you all thats connected. Could be anything, you have the wrong network mask, ip is not set to the range the server will connect to. Widows sharing not enabled, so many possibilities!
Depending on the Windows Server settings it may not respond to pings if the IT tech is worth his title. Ping from the server to the MAC is a far better idea.

thanks people for your quik replies. I've printed these out and will post what the sit is on the computers when i get to them monday. Ric and Joe I can always count on you guys ... Mahalo thank ... have a great weekend

great information ... as you know I've been literally out of it for awhile ... but im back in good health and ready to relearn and contribute again.

aloha ric and joe,

I drove up to the remote location ... us Outdoor Educator wear many hats .. so im "it" not IT for the computers in our remote facilities. Budgets got cut and computers/IT got cut. So I gotta google the repairs, look in ancient manuals, and of course ask for great advice for you guys.

I'm sitting out looking at the redwood trees trying the advice you've given.

I'll let you know the steps I've taken so far.

I can access the internet.

when I go to "network" onn mac os 10.4 I can see the server "owl" icon

but when I click it it says to fix alias and does not let me on... I've tried 3 of the Macs on it and I get this.

Murphys Law #101 - someone locked the server closet and I'm waiting for it to be opened.. I'll kjeep u guys posted

mahalos
Junyah

hey joe..i did what u said
dis is what i got
ping 192.168.0.30, where 192.168.108.54
usage: ping [-AaDdfnoQqRrv] [-c count] [-i wait] [-l preload] [-M mask | time]
[-m ttl] [-p pattern] [-S src_addr] [-s packetsize]
[-t timeout] [-z tos] host
ping [-AaDdfLnoQqRrv] [-c count] [-I iface] [-i wait] [-l preload]
[-M mask | time] [-m ttl] [-p pattern] [-S src_addr]
[-s packetsize] [-T ttl] [-t timeout] [-z tos] mcast-group
amado-hipols-ibook-g4:~ amadohipol$

and Ric i did what you suggested also

Sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear. The usage is simply ping address .

Can you manually connect to the server through the Connect To Server command (Command-K) in the Finder?

thanks joe as always... ill try that but for now a little rest and ill do it fresh next fri

hey guys,

Mahalos .. i got the system running with all your great help. did all the test you gave the connected to the servers with the IP and mounted the shared drives. Mucho thanks for having faith in me and steering me in the right direction.

Aloha Nui
Junyah