Hello all!

I was talking to a friend at the local coffee emporium this afternoon. She
likes Macs and has a Mac Book with OS X Tiger installed. She showed me her
Macs version of Network Neighborhood, and was I surprised at the amount of
information presented there. For example, the Mac address of the coffee
shop's router (I'm assuming the wireless card) was shown. All the other Macs
in the room (on the network I suppose) were also visible, and could be
connected to (albeit with a password, she said, that would pop up a dialog
box on the host Mac's screen). The Mac address of these machines wireless
card's was also shown.

Here's the amazing part to me: although there was a Windows machine online
in the same room, it was not even hinted at on the Mac. And as far as I
know, a Windows PC would never be able to see another Windows PC unless they
were by chance in the same workgroup (and would the router also have to be
in the workgroup?).

Would anyone have an idea why Macs expose themselves so readily? And why
Windows PCs don't? Most Windows machines have software firewalls also, was
one of my theories.

Thank you for time and thought on this.

Best, Will

Will Stephenson
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley

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