Access a PC from a Mac

As I had recently written, I am a recent Mac emigre having been a long-time PC user. One of my main concerns was being able to access the data from my PC. Sure I had the fallback option of burning things to a CD and then copying it off of the CD. However, it would be nice to directly be able to access the files; 'cos you know there is going to be that one file (or more) that you forgot to burn onto the CD and you'd have to repeat that process.

I had read assurances of the ease of migrating. Apple spends a lot of ink (and resources at their stores) helping folks with the migration. However, I have had problems with my home network -- even to get my Windows PC and Windows laptop to play nice so I was understandably nervous.

Sure enough, my first few attempts to get the iMac to see my PC were futile. Tried Go > Network, Go > Connect to Server... to no avail. Finally a bit of Googling gave me the hint I needed. In Windows-land they keep saying how only machines in the "same workgroup" can see each other. All fine and dandy. But how does one set the workgroup in Mac-land? Here's how (tip of hat to jlgnyc11):

Finder > Applications > Utilities > Directory Access > Services (tab?) > SMB/CIFS. Then, press "Configure..." and provide the same workgroup name as you have set for your PC. And there it was, my PC in all its glory!

There was still some quirkiness with accessing things in certain folders in my PC (those under my %userprofile%). On my PC I had to drag 'n drop the folders I wanted to share to c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents). Oh! Well.

I'm a Mac

My iMac is about a week old and I'm loving it! After ogling one for years the process of getting one was quite sudden and fairly unexpected.

It was caused by the collusion of several events: First was the over 90 minutes of video I had amassed during my vacation. I needed some way to "manage" it. By that I needed to be able to edit it, splice it and do all things you always do with home videos. I did realize that I needed to get a Firewire card for my long-in-the-tooth PC . However, it looked like I would need to purchase (alright "need" is too strong, want is probably right) some video editing software. Also, the aforementioned long-in-the-tooth computer....well, it was going to be a sloth.

Coupled with all that, even the wife suggested "why don't you just get a Mac"? Well then, who am I to argue?!

My initial desire was to get a Mac mini. The reasoning was went along the usual lines -- well, I have a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse, and I feel guilty of spending too much on a computer and the mini looks compact and all. Well, long story short, turns out I would have needed to soup up the mini. That coupled with the fact that I would be needing a monitor after all(is it freaky or what that my 14-year old monitor died on the very day I was going to go to the local Apple store to check out the computers) resulted in making the iMac an attractive proposition.

I had heard of Apple refurbished products being of good quality backed by the same warranty as a brand new product. Colleagues who had purchased refurbs from Apple also egged me on. So I decided to get a refurbished iMac. And I kid you not when I say that I cannot find a scratch/dent/blemish on the product! The baby looks brand spanking new! At 85% of the price.

Sweet!