[mac-at-kearsarge]

..."Windows File Sharing (SMB) shared volumes may now be browsed by their user-assigned name."?


Today I downloaded (and installed) the update for 10.2.2. One the the items under the catagory "Networking and Modem anhancemnets" was "Windows File Sharing (SMB) shared volumes may now be browsed by their user-assigned name." Well I took that to mean that instead of seeing the DNS name, I would see the name giving to the actual machine. Despite this I still see the DNS anmes of all the PC's (including mine) on the network. Now I DO have the WINS server address in the settings and it is correct. I also thought that perhpas they meant the reverse was the case (meaning the actual name of the mac could be seen from the Windows Network Browser), but no, I still see "Samba 2.2 (<--not actual version numbers) (My Name)" listed. Does any one know what this "improvemnet" is actually doing. 'cause currently, I'm seeing this as false advertising, or advertising a frature that isn't working, or is planned for future release.

[ghporter]

Windows networking allows you to name and share individual folders, and to use the name, rather than full path, to identify and access those folders. You should still see the names of the computers, but if you share a folder named "Bob" on drive D: of a computer named "Fred," then instead of having to use "\\Fred\DBob" to identify the folder you should be able to use "\\Fred\Bob," or even \\Bob (depending on how your Windows machine is configured).

[mac-at-kearsarge]

Thank you GHPorter for clarifiying that. Unfortuently with the school's network devided into several subnets, despite using the WINS server, I still see the names of the computers as DNS addresses, which if you've ever tried connected to a single comp on a large network, DNS snames are not fun. Meaning I have to keep track of my comp's IPs if I wanna do file sharing.

Interesting side note: Even though both computer connect to the same wireless Base station they usually end up getting IPs on different subnets!