Network Place vs Sharing a Volume

[Guest]

What's the difference between sharing a hard disk on XP Pro and creating a
Network Place to put the HD on the network? Obviously the icon is different.
Which is "better"?

I'm particularly interested in enabling Macs to access the shared drives.
Our Macs run Panther 10.3 (we can't upgrade to Tiger due to some conflicts
with software we use) and I have a hard time getting the XP shares to show up
on the Mac, and I am unable to get 2 volumes to show up on the same share.
The one I add last is the only one the Macs see.

Panther has some issues with cross-platform networking, so I want to try the
XP sharing method that's most robust, to give us a fighting chance.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Dave

 

[Guest]

What's the difference between sharing a hard disk on XP Pro and creating a
Network Place to put the HD on the network?

None, there is only one kind of share.

I find that the Windows users I support mostly prefer to access shares as
drive-mappings (additional drive-letters created with NET USE commands) -
it's simply that they are comfortable with this familar way of working. Next
best is to put desktop-shortcuts linked to the shares. The least-favourable
option is access via Network Places, which most users detest.

Macs I'm not sure about as I've never used OS X, only earlier releases.