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PC Networking
So you want to connect to someone's computer on campus, except they have a Windows computer, and you have a Macintosh. In the past this may have caused many problems, but now thanks to OS X you can connect to any computer. Note: This guide is tailered towards people at Gustavus Adolphus College, who suffer from a horrible campus network. These tips may not be needed at all in other situation.
What You Need
You need a Mac running OS X. The tips and pictures I show are from OS 10.3, so people running lower version numbers may have things a tad bit different.
You need a PC around or have a copy of Virtual PC on your computer. Don't worry, I'm sure your room mate has a PC around somewhere.
What to do
First off you need to know the name of the computer you wish to connect to. You can do this by either asking the person what their computer name is, or by going to a PC and searching out the computer in question.
Stay at the PC. Keep the name handy, or in your mind, and go to the Start button in Windows, and find the Run program. Then type in CMD (for the command line). You'll get a big black scary PC command line, don't worry you don't need to do much. Type in the command ping and then a space, then the name of the computer you want to connect to. It'll take a second and then start spitting out some strings of numbers. It'll repeate the same number over and over again forever if you wish.
On campus most IPs of personal computers should be something like this 138.236.xxx.xxx to some extent. Write down the IP address. For this example I'll be using 138.236.225.555, which may or may not be a computer.
Back on your Mac
Click on your Desktop, and then go to the menu Go and down to Connect to Server. This should be the same in 10.2 and 10.3. You'll want to type in smb:// and then the IP address. Hit Connect. (you need the smb:// or else this won't work)
If you want to save this IP as a Favorite just click on the big old + button.
Connected
Your Mac should be connected to a computer at this point. You'll get a login screen that'll ask for a user name and password, and could possible have a pull down tab with a list of various shared folders. First off try just hitting the OK button and see if it'll let you in without a user name or password. If not, reconnect and try using the user name and password: guest. This may work depending on what version of Windows a person is using.
The connected share should now be on your desktop, and you can copy files or upload files.
In Closing....
In most good situations, such as an actually good network, you can just open a new Finder window and click on Network (in 10.3) and then see all the Windows Workgroups and computers. This is how you'd connect any Mac on campus that is sharing files (at GAC you may see all the Windows Workgroups, to get to the Macs just find the one called Local.) Hopefully this will help you get files from your professors and friends on campus.
-Joshua