OS X (Apple)

have 3 mac all running osx 10.5.8. Two G4 power books and 1 power Mac G4.

I am able to connect each mac to each other by using the connect to server command in the finder menu but I can only get the icon of a connected volume to mount on the desktop. I can connect but I only see a window with the contents of the drive listed but no icon of the drive. If I close the window I can not easily access that connected drive again. I can't easily eject the volume and reaccess it.

On only one computer, when I connect to server and I check the volume I want to mount, the icon of the volume mounts on the desktop and I can click the icon anytime I want until I eject the volume.
I seem to have all the settings the same in the sharing prefrences and accounts etc.

This is an OS X GUI question (though it's likely that it could be addressed at the command line using the "defaults" command).

Click in the Finder (click on the Desktop) and select "Preferences" from the "Finder" menu.
In the Finder Preferences there should be an option to show connected server volumes.

The file that holds this preference is in your home folder located at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Finder.plist

You want this key enabled to set the preference to show mounted network volumes on the desktop

Code:

<key>ShowMountedServersOnDesktop</key>
	<true/>

You can alternatively use MCX if you are using 10.5 or higher to set a profile for these machines, but since you only have to manage 3 of them I would say that is a bit excessive.

Just go to the finder, then preferences (under the Finder file menu or Command + , ) then general and select checkbox for show mounted servers on desktop.