New Mac users forum: a PC Server mysteriously appears in my 'Shared' section????

Is your Airport network protected?

Yes, thanks for your answer to my question (sorry for my response delay, I was out of commission for a bit). Airport is password protected now, it wasn't before. The 'pc server' called mac0017f2ce61f5 still shows up now and then in my 'shared' section in the left side bar.
It says connection failed, or connecting, or connected as guest.

All file sharing is turned off (my iMac and my husband's MacBook Pro laptop). My guest account has had ability to share files turned off.

One day I woke up my iMac from logged out sleep to find an alert onscreen saying: This computer's local hostname "(the computers name).local" is already in use on this network. The name has been changed to "(the computers name)-2.local"

A mac whiz friend says "I'm 99% sure that when the Shareware program that you download expires or you remove it, that mystery sever will disappear. It's very common on the PC side of the computer universe for what is called "spoofing". The so called free or shareware to makes it look like there is a security threat to your computer so that you will buy their full version of their software."

The shareware I'd downloaded for trial was littleSnitch. I've since uninstalled it, and still this mysterious pc server appears from time to time.

Worrisome...


by mrmacfixit Moderator - 2/18/10 4:47 PM In reply to: a PC Server mysteriously appears in my 'Shared' section???? by kgwenf

with a password or do you just broadcast for all the world to connect to?

If the latter, any machine that connected to your network, and which had file sharing turned on, should appear in that side bar.

It will say PC Server if it is not a Mac. Doesn't necessarily mean that it is actually a server, just a PC that is sharing files.
The numbers would appear to be a MAC address, the address of the ethernet card, but that will not help you find the owner.

Make sure that your Wireless Network is protected, WPA at least and a Password.

Hello mrmacfixit,

I was guessing that Little Snitch had nothing to do with the mystery.

You have solved it for me. Many, many thanks. Nothing could have been simpler than to open the System Profiler as you suggested and to check that number against the address of something/anything on my network. It turned out to be the same number as another laptop in the house also using Airport. There are no pc's in the house, and this icon had shown up as a pc server when I used the 'get info' function, so I leaped to the wrong conclusion. I heard just now that that laptop uses a pc server at work, when it only occasionally goes to the office.

Relieved, and much obliged for your generosity,

kgwenf