Share between mac and pc

Hi guys,

I am trying to share files between a mac and a pc. The pc is running 64-bit windows 7 and the mac is running os 10.5.8 leopard. I cannot get the pc's to recognise each other or connect, and it is driving me mad. I have enabled file sharing in both machines, and tried connecting to the mac via the 'run' command and the macs IP, yet windows helpfully lets me know it didn't work, without offering any reason why.

The mac simply doesn't know whats going on. Despite allowing file sharing, and enabling SMB sharing, it still doesn't pick up my windows pc. The computers are connected via an ethernet cable going from machine to machine.

How, in this day and age , can file sharing be so difficult? Why is it not just plug and play? Or at least, plug, password and play?

Please someone help me before I destroy 2 perfectly good pc's!