The basic idea and setup is described here, however, many details are missing, so I put together detailed instructions with screenshots. I am describing the configuration between a Mac running Leopard and a Windows 95 Machine.
Macs typically have a 6-pin jack, PCs typically have a 4-pin jack, so you need an appropriate cable. If you only have a 6-pin to 6-pin cable, you can get a 6-pin to 4-pin adapter. Do not yet connect the FireWire cable.
Let’s start on the Windows machine: First, open the Network Connections settings via the control panel. You should see the “1394 Connection” item, if not you need to add it.
Double click on the “1394 Connection” to configure the IP address. The “1394 Connection properties” window opens:
Select “Internet protocol (TCP/IP)” and click on Properties to get this window:
Enter an IP address and subnet mask, as shown. These are just examples. It doesn’t matter so much what you enter here, but what you enter on the Mac has to be identical except for last the group in the IP address. You are are done here, click OK on the IP Properties and the Connection Properties.
Next go to the Mac and open the “Network” panel under the “System Preferences”:
Select “FireWire” on the left and “Using DHCP with manual address” from the pulldown menu on the right as shown. Then enter an IP address. It’s the same as above except for the last group (146 not 145).
Now connect the two computers with a FireWire cable. To verify the connection, on Windows once more open the “Network Connections” settings via the “Control Panel”. Double click the “1394 Connection” item. If everything was done right, you see a live connection:
The General tab will show the duration and speed. Click the Support tab to confirm the IP address:
Likewise, on the Mac, the Network panel shows the active connection:
You can see that the connection is active by the green dot next to the FireWire symbol on the left and the “Connected” status on the right.
Now the computers are connected. To actually share files, a couple of additional steps are needed. On the Mac, go to “Sharing” under “System Preferences” and activate “File Sharing”. Add the folders you want to share as shown below:
On Windows, right click on the folder you want to share and and select “Sharing” for the context menu to get this screen:
Now you are ready to mount shared folders. On Windows, go to the Explorer’s Tools menu and select “Map Network Drive”. Select a drive letter and enter the Mac’s IP address followed by a back-slash and your login name on the Mac as shown below.
Important: If you use a different user name and password to sign onto your Mac and Windows computers, then you need to click on “Connect using a different user name” and enter your Mac login credentials:
Click Finish, and your Mac folder should appear in the Windows Explorer under teh assigned drive letter.
Next, on the Mac, open the Finder and select “Connect to Server…” from the “Go” menu:
Enter the Windows IP address using the above shown syntax and click “Connect”. First a window comes up and asks for your Windows login credentials, then a window will pop up to ask you which folder to connect to as shown below:
Select the desired folder and click OK. The shared folder will be available from the Finder, and the connected Server will be identified by its IP address in the Finder’s Sidebar as shown below:
That’s it.