How to use advanced File Sharing in OS X

[osxdude]

Not only did someone request this to be written, it's useful to everyone and very, very easy to do. This is how to enable more sharing stuff in Mac OS X. This tutorial works best on Mac OS X 10.5 and above, and is written on 10.6, but may have some holes on older versions of OS X.

Alright, so on your Mac, open up System Preferences. Click Sharing.

Now click File Sharing in the list. Click the little checkbox to turn the whole File Sharing thing on.

Wait a second. Don't close System Preferences, you aren't done. On the file sharing panel (this is kinda what it looks like), click options. You will be presented with this:

As you can see, this lets you turn on and off some more file sharing services than just AFP.

<for non-computer-savvy people>

AFP stands for Apple File Protocol and is, obviously, for sharing between other Macs.

FTP is mostly the universal File Transfer Protocol (yes, that is what FTP stands for). You can view FTP on almost every Linux, all Windows, and Macs.

The last one, SMB is the one you want to click if you wanna share files across your Windows computers. SMB stands for Server Message Block, by the way. Also, some Linux distros do come with SMB support built in.

<end non-computer-savvy part>

Just check the checkboxes next to to the corresponding service to turn it on. If you can't decide which ones, choose SMB if you have Windows computers you want to share with, AFP if you have Macs, and FTP if you have Linux or something.

Thats all you need to do. It's all too simple.

<for non-computer-savvy people>

Now, to actually get to the Mac, it's different for each protocol.

For AFP, Macs will automatically appear in the Network window under Finder (Go menu > Network) or in a Finder window's sidebar under Sharing. You will have to click "Connect As..." and enter your username and password from your host Mac to view all files.

For FTP, you have to type in the address that is in the statement under the "Share files and folders via FTP" in the Options dialog where you turned FTP on. You will have to enter a username and password; just use your username and password for your Mac.

For SMB, if you have a custom workgroup, your PC must be in the workgroup "WORKGROUP," or your Mac must be in your workgroup. By default, both Macs and PCs (past Windows Vista) use "WORKGROUP" as the default workgroup. Unless you changed that workgroup thing, don't worry about it. If you get a username/password dialog, just enter your username and password on your Mac.

<end non-computer-savvy part>

That's all there is to it! You can now view (all) of your Mac's files from (I hope) all of your computers. If you have questions, I guess you can reply here. Oh, and if this was obvious to you, let me know as well.

[null_]

I don't have a Mac anymore so I can't comment on the effectiveness or the accuracy of this, but I must say this is a nice guide! Thanks for sharing! :)