I can view shared files from my PC's on my mac but how do I see shared items on my Mac from a Pc? Is it possible w/o any additional software?

OH YES! [edit] OS X 10.3.* ie: Panther [/edit]

You need the WORKGROUP name that is used by the PCs
(and if you have more than one PC on the LAN, then they all must be the same;
I'll assume you have PC Print/File sharing working already -- if not please confess promptly )

With the PCs sharing, those firewalls are also setup correctly too.

On the Mac; use the Apple Menu (far left on the menu bar) -> About this Mac

report the Version of Mac OS X

Set the workgroup name on the MAC to be identical to the PC(Lan) systems

open the system HD
open Applications; Open Utilities
Launch Directory Access
At the bottom is [ ] SMB; click once and then click the Configure Button
In the text box, enter the PC workgroup name; click ok and CLOSE the window

Enable File sharing by using the Apple Menu again ->System Preferences

Under Internet & Network ->Sharing; click the Services tab
now click [ ] for Personal File sharing, Windows File Sharing and at the bottom, Print Sharing

Test your results
On the PC; open View Entire network (click on the Folders Icon )
open MS Windows Network; this will show [+] YourWorkGroupName
Opening that will then list the Systems that are online at this moment.

Accessing files resident on the Mac
The easy way is to use an identical login name on both the PC and the Mac.
You can get there in two ways:

1. double clicking the Mac System name shown under the Workgroup Name
2. mapping a network drive

Accessing files resident on the PC
Use the GO menu; pull down to Connect To Server; enter

• smb://ipaddress/ShareName/
• smb://pcname/ShareName/

(names don't always work )

you will get a prompt for the User/Password owning the Sharename

Thanks for the quick and through response!
I will try this asap.

Not sure its as complicated anymore with Leopard, which you are likely running.

Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Sharing
Check the File Sharing tick box.
Click the Plus button to add a directory to share.
Click the Plus Button to add a user, or change the permissions of users already listed.
Click Options... Ensure "Share files and folders using SMB" is checked, and that the account is listed.

Then your Mac should show up in the network, it does in Vista. I don't think I had to do anything about a Workgroup. I remember needing to do that in Tiger, but I don't believe I've done that for Leopard. IF it doesn't show up, you should still be able to get to it by the local IP.

Yeah I have leapored

Original Post was relative to Panther and has been so annotated

Turns out, Leopard will default to 'WORKGROUP'. To change it to your workgroup if you use a different name you need to go to System Preferences -> Network, then click on Advanced... Then the WINS tab. By default there is nothing entered for Workgroup, but in reality a Windows machine will (or rather should) see the Mac in the WORKGROUP workgroup. You can change it to what you want there, and then hit Ok and then Apply. And it doesn't even need a reboot

I did some experiments with the workgroup name from the Mac side.

Given a workgroup name on the windows side, Mac OS X can access any resource
on Windows (assuming User/Password can be given correctly)
using any name you like, even one that does not exist