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georgep7

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MacBook not connecting to windows machine

Hi guys, this one is driving me insane. I have a recent MacBook running OS X 10.5.6 which is connected to a time capsule through the wireless N. The time capsule is connected to a switch. I also have a Windows XP computer that is connected to the switch directly through gigabit ethernet. Most of the time I can connect to the shared folders on the Win XP box through the MacBook no problem. I can access the file, copy, etc.

Every now and then I cannot connect to the shares at all. I open up a finder window, click on the share name and... nothing. The little circle in the bottom right hand of the window just goes round and round, it says "Connecting..." at the top and nothing happens. I click on the "Connect As..." button on the finder windows and it doesn't bring up anything.

I have also tried to connect to the Win XP box by going to the Connect to Server through the Go menu on the finder, but this doesn't work either.

I can ping the IP address of the Win XP box. I can also access the Win XP shares through a virtual disk on the MacBook running under Parallels.

The only I can get the shares connecting through the MacBook when this happens is to restart the laptop - which is a real pain in the ass.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss to understand why this is happening.

Thanks.
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georgep7

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By the way - I have a second MacBook in the house (my wife's) exactly the same setup and I just tried it from there and it works. So there's something happening on my MacBook that causes this problem - any ideas?
A bit more on this - it doesn't want to connect to any machine (mac or windows) when in this state until I restart.
check your console application on the Mac to see what your system log says is happening... You may want to clear it first to get a somewhat clean slate, then try to connect to your XP share....my guess is that you will see some type of protocol failure....
post the log if you can.
probably the most basic test, but have you tried another port in the switch, another wall port to the switch, or another network cable?
Can you please direct me as to how to check the console application?
it is an application within your Utilities folder which is inside of your Applications folder. The default log will be the system log, click on the Show LOGS and you will be able to navigate into any/all of the log files.
Ok, I ran the console, cleared all the messages and tried to connect to the windows machine. The following two messages popped up instantly:

18/03/09 8:28:51 AM com.apple.launchd[183] (com.apple.netauth.useragent[916]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL 35570 seconds ago...
18/03/09 8:28:56 AM com.apple.launchd[183] (com.apple.netauth.useragent[916]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL 35575 seconds ago...

and continued

18/03/09 8:28:56 AM com.apple.launchd[183] (com.apple.netauth.useragent[916]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL 35575 seconds ago...
18/03/09 8:29:01 AM com.apple.launchd[183] (com.apple.netauth.useragent[916]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL 35580 seconds ago...
18/03/09 8:29:06 AM com.apple.launchd[183] (com.apple.netauth.useragent[916]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL 35585 seconds ago...
18/03/09 8:29:11 AM com.apple.launchd[183] (com.apple.netauth.useragent[916]) Did not die after sending SIGKILL 35590 seconds ago...

and continued...
logout from your machine. at the login screen enter your password but do not hit enter yet. press and hold the shift key, hit enter. keep holding the shift key until you are sure the desktop has finished loading. now go into your Utilities folder and open Disk Utility app.
Once disks are loaded, repair permissions on your hard disk within disk first aid, then verify the disk. hopefully you will not get any errors
I assume you have to shut down completely before doing this (as just logging out and trying to log back in with shift-enter doesn't work)? Trying it now.
shift enter at the login screen does not work - it wont login
sorry I should have been more specific. hold the shift key down, and use the mouse cursor to hit the Login button.
Hi, I was actually on the phone to Apple support - they suggested something similar, but to boot off the Mac OS X installation disk and holding down the "C" key until the Apple logo/spinning disk - then I went through verifying the disk and then repairing the permissions which seemed to have been all messed up. I then was told to reboot, but that's when I got disconnected.

Would there be anything else I need to do after verifying/repairing the permissions?
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Ugo Mena
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Yes, I check the box to have the password saved in the keychain.
did you try logging in with a different user on your machine?
Well it's all working now after the permissions repair. Should I just keep working as the regular user and see if it all continues to work?