Setting up Leopard (OS X 10.5) to share files with a Windows XP PC is a fairly simple process, but as with any networking task, it's useful to understand how the underlying process works.

Starting with Leopard, Apple has reconfigured the way Windows file sharing is set up. Instead of having separate Mac file sharing and Windows file sharing control panels, Apple has placed all file sharing processes into a single system preference, making it easy to set up and configure file sharing.

Here we’ll take you through the entire process of setting up your Mac to share files with a PC. We’ll also cover some basic issues you might encounter along the way.

Apple uses the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol for file sharing with Windows users, and also with Unix/Linux users. This is the same protocol that Windows uses for network file and printer sharing, but Microsoft calls it Microsoft Windows Network.