Tip on using Bonjour for windows file sharing

If you turn on Windows Sharing on your Mac and then connect to your Mac from your Parallels Windows installation, then every time your Mac's IP address changes, Windows will no longer see what you are sharing and you have to reconnect by typing in the new IP address. This will happen if say, you move your laptop between work and home or home and a coffee shop, etc.

This tip lets you use your Mac's Bonjour address instead of the IP address. The Mac's Bonjour address is always the same regardless of your machine's IP address or how you are connected to the internet.

Make sure Windows Sharing is on:
* Open System Preferences and go to the Sharing preference pane.
* Make sure Windows Sharing is checked.
* Click on the Accounts... button and make sure your user name is checked.
* At the top of the Sharing pane, you'll see the "Other computers on your local subnet can access your computer at somename.local" but instead of somename, you'll see your own machine name. Remember this address or click Edit... to change it.

Install Bonjour for Windows (if you've installed this before, you can skip this step):
* Start up your Parallels windows 2000/2003/XP installation.
* Go to http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bonjour and download "Bonjour for Windows 1.03" from the bottom right of the page.
* Run the Bonjour installer.

Use your Mac's Bonjour address from Windows:
* Open a new Explorer window and type the equivalent of \\somename.local, by replacing somename.local with your machine's .local address from above.
* You should be prompted for your user name and password and after logging in you'll be able to see your Mac's home directory (as well as all of your printers)

Optional Steps:
* On you Mac, you can also download SharePoints http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/ and share other folders besides your home folder.
* In Windows you can right click on your Mac's home directory (or any other folder shared with SharePoints) and select Map Network Drive... In the dialog that comes up, if you check "Reconnect at logon", you won't need to keep reconnecting to the shared folder.

Cheers!

 

detailed instructions?

Could you please give more details on how you did this. Would be useful for many of us who (unfortunately) work at home as well. I have bonjour installed for printer sharing, but setting up a shared network volume using bonjour and mac local beats me. Prolly very simple, but I'm a also a simple person.

 

I 2nd that ...

 

on your mac, goto System Preferences, then click the sharing icon. You can change your computer name there. You can also enable Windows file sharing from there as well.

 

Moved the detailed instructions to the first post...

 

Thanks

Worked a treat at home, let's see tomorrow at work. Appreciate your help.
Ps. one more thing still, how do you type backslash (\) on the XP side? I have a MBP with a scandinavian keyb and in Os X it is shift-alt-7. Always have to copy it from the Os x side. Thnx again.

 

Working fine at work, elegant solution also for people who travel a lot and use numerous ip's. Now if I just could learn to type the backslash in XP my whole life would be just perfect.

 

Got it (backslash \)! Ctrl+alt+"+" (plus key). Same position as on a win kb (altgr=alt+ctrl). Just for future reference for others with a scandinavian kb (seems to be a very common problem).

 

Excellent tip - thank you!

I've been struggling with the shared folder issue...this seems to work perfectly!

Tim

 

I tried this, and it works, although my back-slash key doesn't.

However, within Windows, it didn't ask for my Mac username and password.
Does this mean that my entire Mac home folder is visible to everyone on the Planet !!??

(I have since disabled Windows sharing on my Mac !)

 

Curious. Does the same thing happen if you use an IP address? Perhaps your user name/password in Windows is the same as in OS X? If so, try changing the password in one or the other and see if this makes Windows prompt you to login.

Bonjour addresses are only accessible within your subnet, which means only someone on your local network can use a .local address. IP addresses on the other hand are of course more accessible!

Cheers!

 

fantastic tip!

/bump

helped me greatly.