Sharing files between a Windows Vista Business edition and a Mac osx 10.6.6

Is there reliable information somewhere about how to share files from a Windows Vista business edition pc to a Mac osx 10.6.6? I have googled instructions and followed the steps and still could not have sharing to happen between the Vista pc and the Mac. These are the steps I have performed, I have made sure that

o Both the Vista pc and the Mac have the same user account/password.

o The firewall from the Vista side allows file and printer sharing in the exceptions.

o Enabled sharing with a few directories on the Vista pc.

o Changed the security policy on the Vista pc to "LM and NTLM - use NTLMV2 session security if negotiated".

o On the Mac System Preferences > Sharing selected File sharing.

On the Windows Vista pc, if I click the Start menu and then Network, the Mac does not appear. On the Mac, from the Finder menu if I click Go > Connect to server and request a connection to the IP address of that Vista pc, I get an error, "Connection Failed" (could not find pc or not available at this time).

What else do I need?