Help For Mac User

[nbelkind]

New user. Just got the Patriot Box yesterday, and am excited by its possibilities....

However, I'm rather tech un-savvy when it comes to networking issues. I've tried reading all the mac-related posts, but my eyes just glaze over when I read them, and I don't understand half of the lingo

I was hoping someone here would have pity on my soul and help me with something that should be basic:

My set up now is a patriot box (i have upgraded the firmware) with a 2TB external HD attached (FAT formatted). I can get my movies to play, which is super awesome, and easy. I also have the Patriot box connected to an AirportExtreme unit via ethernet cable.

My question is this: Is there any way that I can get to see the patriot box/external HD using my mac laptop (snow leopard 10.6.4) via my wireless connection so that I can dump files onto the 2TB drive(which hypothetically is connected to the network via the PBOX/ethernet connection)????

As I said, I'm really ignorant when it comes to networking stuff, so please treat me like a five year old if you are so kind as to respond.

Thanks!

UPDATE---->
So, I've been obsessing with this all day, and made some progress, so I'll share for those novices out there.

I've been able to get my Pbox to see the movie folders I have with some .avi's etc on my laptop. I can also stream the .avi's to the pbox by navigating with the remote to whatever file i want to play thats on my laptop. the files are rather small, and not really encoded with a high bit rate, so even though its streaming over wifi, it still plays just fine.

So here's what I did (i think, i messed around with so many settings, not sure which one did the trick):
1. Made sure samba/BT was on in the pbox settings
2. restarted the pbox with my ext HD plugged in by totally powering down
3. went to my laptop system preferences panel and clicked on "sharing" under the internet and wireless setting
4.clicked on filesharing tab in the left to turn it one
5. once file sharing was on, clicked on options
6. under options, clicked on "share files and folders using windows smb"
7. then I selected which folders I wanted to be shared (although i only selected my movie folders, the whole computer showed up on the pbox with all of the weird hidden mac substructure folders etc, but i was happy to get it to work at all)
8. I then turned on the pbox and waited for it to load up
9. went to NET, and for the first time, i saw a folder titled /WORKGROUPS in addition to the /shortcuts and /neighbors folder and clicked on that
10. once in the workgroups folder, my laptop name showed up, so i clicked on to that
11. Pbox asked me for my username and password (which is the same as the name and password you enter anytime you make any installation or system change on your mac) which i entered and saved as a shortcut
12. VIOLA! i could navigate the foders on my mac through the pbox

I tested streaming some smaller files, and it worked! i even transferred a 200 mb file from my laptop to the ext. USB i have connected to the Pbox and it worked!

So, i hope these intructions help. Its probably obvious to you tech savvy dudes, but it was a long process for me.....

I could still use advice from people on a number of things:
1. I can't see the pbox/ext hd from my laptop.
2. now i don't see the workgroups folder when i select NET on the pbox, and I don't know why.
3. every now and again, both on my laptop and on the pbox, VENUS folder shows up, randomly, and disappears randomly. what gives?

thanks for reading