ISSUE: My Dell Laptop shows my Mac in the network window, but when I try to browse the Mac, Vista makes me login and every attempt at logging in has failed (192.168.1.103\macguest and various passwords). I’m 99.9% sure everything is set up correct on my Mac because I can browse my Mac from my Dell Tower (XP), just not from my Dell Laptop (Vista)
NOTE: All three of my computers are on one and the same subnet
1. My Dell Tower with XP will connect to my Mac, using just the userid of macguest which I created on the Mac along with its associated password
2. My Dell Laptop with Vista Home Edition will not connect to my Mac, using the methods I’ve seen on the Web (i.e.: address\macuserid and password; macuserid and password etc)
3. My Dell Laptop will connect to my Dell Tower, so it cannot be a firewall issue
4. I found info on the Web about a registry setting, LMCompatibilityLevel which should be set to a ‘1’ on any Windows Vista machine you want to connect to a Mac
5. I set the ‘ValueData’ value to 1 for the LMCompatibilityLevel setting which did not fix the issue (I restarted first); I am not sure if this is the correct exact thing to change or not.
6. I read something on the Internet about ‘fast queries’ that Vista uses that may be messing up connecting the Dell Laptop to my Mac, but have no idea on how to fix this issue.
7. I read something else about my router possibly being the problem, but don’t see how since my Dell tower and Dell laptop connect just fine.
8. Somewhere along the way, I ran a test in which my router failed one test for Vista compatibility; but I can browse the Web from my Dell Laptop (Vista) and see the Dell Tower without any problem, so I don’t see how this could be the issue either. The results for the test said that, “some applications would be degraded…”.
9. I have not purchased one of the routers recommended yet due to lack of funds.
10. I know I could purchase Dave to make my Mac look like a PC, but that is an expensive proposition.
11. I could purchase PC McLAN to make my laptop look like a Mac, but then it might not work with my Dell tower
12. I could upgrade to Mac OS 10.4, but that is at least $65 USD
13. The worst option is to upgrade to Vista Business edition, which I’ve heard does not have connection problems to Macs (for a measely $250.00 USD)
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What do I need to do to connect my Vista Home Basic OS machine to my Mac (Mac OS 10.3.9)?
