So, you want to connect your shiny new MacBook to the school server to access files from the Shared drive, huh? It's not too difficult. Just follow the steps below.
STEP 1: Get info about the school server
Open My Computer on a school desktop. You'll need to note the names of the share you want to connect to.
I want to connect to the "Shared" share on my school server (called 62-fs1). Unfortunately, OS X can't connect to computers by their Windows name i.e. 62-fs1. So, I'll need to find the IP address of the server. This can be done by using the command PING 62-fs1 on a windows desktop OR you can cheat. I looked at my schools ezprinters.csv file in the Apps share. This told me that my school server's IP address is 10.62.0.10.
STEP 2: Connect to Server
Now, all I need to do is open Finder on my MacBook and use the Go menu to Connect to Server...
This brings up a Connect to Server window. Type in the letters smb:// before your IP address and name of the share you want to access. Hitting the + button saves your server to your Favorites so you can access them again. I've obviously used this before... ;)
STEP 3: Hints and Tips
A couple of quick notes: