forsyth

In other words - You have a Windows workstation and a Mac on a network - the mac is sharing files and storage space - but every time (or randomly) you connect to it from the windows workstation, it asks you to authenticate by typing in your id/password again?

Which version of Windows are you using? Vista had a great upgrade in the SMB protocol, and win7 had yet another.

If the constant re-authentication is that much a nuisance, check into an alternative server to run on the mac, or move the storage offline to a NAS that everyone can access independently.

Then again, if you are on a domain, ask your domain administrator what they will allow you to do.

Also - sounds like your network connection between the two PCs (if not on a domain) is dropping then reconnecting. Vista and 7 tolerate this very well even with files open. XP isn't very happy about it and may force you to browse back out to the file share (reauthenticate) before it will let you save an open file there. No idea how the Mac responds in that situation.

SMB files. I have read a little about them. I know they pop up when using PCs and Mac to communicate .... Please correct me if I am wrong.

My question is why do they pop up unexpectedly without the user creating the new file folder?
I am so confused. Can somebody please explain to me what they really are and why they are? Please talk slowly as I am not very computer literate.

Also, in OS X why would access be denied from the server to another computer in the building when file sharing has been locked with the password to "share" folders? The computers seem to have a mind of their own and arbitrarily locks a user out whenever it feels like it.