Cant see MacBook in Windows Network I'm trying to access my MacBook from a Windows PC over the network. The computer is connected to the router, the MacBook is connected to a WAP, which is connected to a switch, which is connected to the router.

When I click on Network on the PC, the MacBook doesn't show up. It has done previously. Sometimes the Windows computer shows in the Finder sidebar and sometimes it doesn't.

How can I make the MacBook show in Network [Places] on the Windows machine? And how do I make the Windows machine stay in the Finder sidebar?
In my experience there is no quickfix way to get windows and mac machines to always be visible in the others networks list. 

The best thing you can do is enable Samba filesharing on your mac, then when you want to connect you just type smb://Jonathan's MacBook Pro into the address bar in Explorer (or into the run dialogue).

To Enable SMB sharing on your Mac:


Go to System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing
Select Options 
Tick Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)


This has always worked for me with networking windows machines in Mac environments.