Question : Problem: Macintosh G5 needs to access shared folders on Windows network.

Hello,

    I am a network admin for a medium sized company. We run Windows 2000 server or 2003 server on all servers. We have an employee in our color design dept. that has a Mac G5. I don't know macs at all, she is wanting it to be able to access shared folders on one of our fileservers. I clicked around on it a little bit but was pretty lost from the start, it is literally the first time I laid hands on a Mac. Can anyone help me with a solution for joining her to the domain and or just accessing shared folders. Even if we do get her joined to the domain which is not a necessicty I still will need a little guidance on how to connect her to shared folders. Thanks alot for your time.

Answer : Problem: Macintosh G5 needs to access shared folders on Windows network.

To connect to a Windows server:
1. Go to the Finder (blue face icon in the dock, or just click the desktop)
2. Select Connect to Server... from the Go menu
3. Enter SMB://fqdn.server.com/shareName (where 'fqdn.server.com' is the FQDN of the server hosting the share, and shareName is the name of the share itself)
4. Click the '+' button to add the address to the list of favorites (the white box below the address box).
5. Click Connect
6. Authenticate using DOMAIN, Username and Password in the box that pops up.
7. The share window will open.
8. If you close the share window, you can re-open it from the icon on the desktop or the icon on the left sidebar of a Finder window.

I wouldn't futz with joining the system to the domain unless it becomes absolutely necessary (it will, however, allow you to skip step 6 above, because she will have logged into the system user her domain account).