Accessing Network Shares from OS X (Prior to Lion)

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Updated 08/15/2011: Based on the my blog stats it looks like many of you are hitting this page while searching for information on connecting to Windows shares from OS X Lion. I’ve found another resource that may be of assistance, though I can’t verify it:
Access PC Windows 7 Files From Mac OS X Lion (TrickyWays)

There are multiple ways to access a network share from OS X. For example, you may find the shares by browsing Network. Since I know the IP addresses of the machines I need to connect to I usually take a more direct route, which can also be useful in accessing shares that may not appear under Network.

In this example the target computer is a Windows system named Target with an IP address of 192.168.1.5.

Traditionally, under Windows you would have used \\Target or \\192.168.1.5 to access files over the network.

In OS X you can go to the Finder and then do the following:

  1. On the Finder menubar select Go
  2. Choose Connect to Server
  3. In the Server Address box type smb://192.168.1.5 [or your target machine IP]
  4. If you want to save it under Favorite Servers click the plus button
  5.  Click Connect
  6. Select the appropriate share and/or provide authentication credentials

I also use this method to connect to Mac shares.

I’ve read that Apple dropped Samba support in Lion due to licensing changes and has instead added true Windows sharing support. As a result, using “smb://” may no longer work. I can’t verify this since I don’t have Lion (I’m still using Snow Leopard). I spent a few minutes researching this but several different methods were offered across different Websites. I can’t test them to determine the simplest method so for now I’ll refrain from posting a suggestion.

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