How to Become a Network Guru
About Two-Mac Networks
Networking two Macs together is both useful and relatively straightforward. Whether a two-Mac network is your final goal or you want to leave the option for expansion open, you’ll learn how to set up everything and minimize your costs at the same time.
People often set up a two-Mac network as a one-time connection to move files from an old Mac to a new one. If your network is going to be temporary, the emphasis will probably be on cost rather than performance. Most Mac users can set up a network using only a single cable, so the cost will be minimal.
Note for Owners of New, Colored Macs
Every colored G3, G4, and iMac comes with a 10/100BaseT Ethernet port (some also support 1000BaseT), which means that it can connect to any Ethernet network and automatically match the network’s speed.
Since these models lack serial (modem and printer) ports, they don’t support LocalTalk networks. If you need to connect one of these Macs to LocalTalk computers or printers, you’ll need to use an appropriate adapter. See the Mix LocalTalk & Ethernet page for more info.
What You Need for a Two-Mac Ethernet
The cheapest Ethernet connection, good for two (and only two) computers, is a crossover cable connection. A crossover cable eliminates the need for a hub by switching the cable’s send and receive wires internally. Because these wires are swapped, a crossover cable cannot be used as part of a hub-based network. For more information, see the New Network: Crossover Ethernet Overview page.
What You Need for a Two-Mac LocalTalk
The least expensive LocalTalk network consists of a single serial cable connecting the printer port of both Macs. Serial cables are typically used to connect Macs to printers, modems, and other peripherals, and are extremely common. Since most Mac owners have such a cable in their possession, the cost of this network is practically nothing. For more information, see the New Network: LocalTalk Serial Overview page.
Wireless Networking (AirPort)
Many Mac models released in the last few years can use Apple’s method of wireless networking, known as AirPort. AirPort works like a radio station, with a central broadcasting station (the Base Station) transmitting signals to receivers (AirPort cards) in the nearby Macs. The AirPort Base Station also performs NAT (Network Address Translation), so you can automatically share a modem or high-speed Internet connection across the wireless network.
Technically, you can have up to 255 Macs using a single Base Station at once, although the bandwidth is limited enough (it maxes out at about 1 MB/sec) that network performance would bog down before you got anywhere close to that number.
For more information about AirPort and setting it up, see the New Network: AirPort page.
Copyright © 2001 Matthew Glidden,
mglidden@atpm.com.
Also in This Series
- Mac to Windows: Troubleshooting the “No Logon Servers Available” File Sharing Error · October 2004
- Using WEP Security on an AirPort Network · July 2004
- Whatever happened to…Threemacs.com? · September 2003
- Clandestine Wireless Networking and MacStumbler · July 2003
- Learning to Share With Others: Sharing Preferences Overview · April 2003
- Serving Files Using FTP in Mac OS X · December 2002
- Switching Between Networks in Mac OS X · November 2002
- The Audio/Video Quadras (660av, 840av) · September 2002
- Thoughts on Apple’s Xserve · July 2002
- Complete Archive
Reader Comments (58)
Thanks for your future answer.
Ed
The best solution will not only get your two computers networked, but will also permit them to both use your DSL connection—and give you the protection of a firewall. Simply buy a router with built-in switched hub. They can be had for around $60. You connect your DSL modem's ethernet jack to the WAN port of the router, then plug each of your computers, via ethernet, into one of the numbered ports on the router. The router then manages the DSL connection instead of your computer, and feeds connectivity to all attached computers. And, of course, you can turn on file sharing on one of the computers and access it from the other one.
Doug
Thanks for the response. Verizon wired the house to
what looks like a hub in the basement. All cables are
labled for the rooms they're in. I may have to have
them come out and check their work.
Thanks
Doug
Slightly varied topic: do you have DSL or cable modem service, or are you considering getting it? If so, you should consider, instead, having Verizon help you set it up so that instead of a hub in your basement, bring in the broadband line to your basement and replace the hub with an inexpensive broadband router. The connection would go into the broadband modem, and an ethernet cable would connect from the modem to the router's WAN port. Then, each of the numbered router ports would lead to the various locations in your home. Then, not only could you do File Sharing between your home computers, all of them would also have high speed internet access. And no, you would not have to get into the rigamaroll of port forwarding in the router if you only intend to do File Sharing between your home computers. If you do want to share files to an outside computer, you would have to forward port 548 to the local IP of your home computer that's doing the sharing.
Thanks.
That's basically it. Generally, only cable modem connections automatically provide a TCP signal to your computer (or router/Base Station) without running extra software. Many DSL lines require you to run some sort of PPPoE software such as MacPoET. If you are already running such software on one of your computers, you won't need it any more. I'm afraid I've never directly used a Base Station (I chose to use a wireless Linksys router instead), but I know most routers have built-in PPPoE capability and I just read that the Base Station does, too. If you have difficulty setting it up, you might load Apple's AirPort Knowledge Base page and type 'PPPoE' in the search box.
I appreciate your wisdom! This clears up the matter for me.
Thanks!
For a number of reasons I won't waste time with here, I think a 3rd party router is a better choice—not the least of which is that you can get them much cheaper than a Base Station. Another good reason is that the base station only has one LAN port to attach a non-wireless-equipped computer. If you want more, you have to attach a hub or a switch to that LAN port. 3rd party routers generally have several LAN ports on a built-in switched hub. The Linksys that I use offers four ports.
Something, too, that might help you, if you are wanting to set up encryption on your router: I wrote an article some months ago about about setting up Wi-Fi encryption on nonApple wireless routers.
One other question: for the Quicksilver G4, should I go for the Apple wireless card or will a 3rd party card work in the G4?
Thanks!
Desktop Macs don't come with PCMCIA slots and I've never seen any nonApple wireless cards in any other form. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure you have any option for a wireless card in your desktop other than the AirPort card. There is, however, another option that I'm aware of and might be less expensive—but I have absolutely no data on how reliable the option is. You could also use a wireless to ethernet bridge. This is a device that would sit on your desk somewhere and you connect it to your computer with a standard ethernet cable—bridging (converting) a wireless signal to the built-in ethernet port you already have.
Good luck.
David
Regards,
David
This page should help a bit.
Here's the question simplified: instead of linking our two Macs via ethernet cables, can we link them by having one of our Macs call the other via phone lines?
Thanks for any help and for all the other helpful hints on this page.
It's great for file sharing and we are both connected to the Internet by this means.
However, I have no idea how to network the printers.
Presently we have a Lexmark Z22 inkjet attached to one computer and a Samsung ML-1210 laser printer attached to the other. Both are running fine.
However, it would be good if we could print from either computer on either printer.
How would I set this up?
Thanks,
Lorne
Alternatively you could buy a wireless PCMCIA card for the 5300 and, if your POwerBook G4 has Airport built in, you could do a peer to peer wireless network. See:
http://www.ioxperts.com/80211b.html
For more information. This is probably the easiest and most sensible option, although if your Powerbook G4 does not have Airport built in it would require an added investment to equip that machine as well.
I'm trying to network a Powerbook G4 800 MHz with a Desktop G4 400 MHz (with Gigabit ethernet PCI slot installed). The main idea is to use the desktop machine for audio plug-ins. I'm planning to connect them directly via crossover ethernet cable. Since I don't have a monitor for the Desktop machine, I'm wondering if I'll be able to do this by just powering up both computers with the ethernet ports connected or do I need to find a monitor first and adjust settings. i.e. will I be able to see the desktop's screen through my powerbook? if not, is there any other way to use a powerbook as a monitor in this situation? thanks
What you should probably do is find a monitor to attach to your desktop, fire it up, and set it so that if you have to reboot it, it automatically logs in to a particular user. Then turn on file sharing. Once that's done, your PowerBook can connect to it to access items on the hard drive. File sharing does not enable you to see the desktop's display, but you can access the files, which sounds like is all you want to do.
Alternatively, and especially if you also want to share an internet connection, just get an inexpensive broadband router. At the moment of this writing, you can get a D-Link router for free! (Well, plus a few bucks shipping.) CompUSA also has a Belkin router for $15 after a pretty hefty rebate. With the router, both machines would connect to the router's ports to share the internet connection fed to the router's WAN port, and they'd both be able to transfer files via file sharing through the router just the same as if you had connected them directly.
Open up the Mac OS Help Viewer and search for IP over FireWire or do some Google searching on that topic for some extra information. But it essentially involves adding the FireWire port as a new item in the Network Configuration list.
c
was hoping to copy my entire hard drive from one b&w g3 to another
the one i want to copy is running OS 9.2
the one i want to copy it to is running OSX 10.3
would it be possible to use target disk mode with a firewire cable?
or even just a crossover ethernet cable to drag files from one to the other?
i tried a crossover cable but the newer g3 doesn't SEE the other one--i turned file sharing on
do i have to do it online?
i'm a novice---please walk me through it
i figured it would be easier than physically taking the hard drive out and slaving it in the newer machine
thanx for any help you can provide
i have the g3 i want to transfer the files TO hooked up to my monitor
the g3 i want to transfer files FROM is off
i connect them via a firewire cable
i then boot up the older g3 holding down the T key
but nothing happens
what am i doing wrong?
Ideally, if you have a broadband internet connection coming in to your location, you'd have a router to share the 'net connection among your machines. If not, connect the two computers with the crossover ethernet cable. To be safe, change the Network (TCP/IP on the OS 9 machine) settings on both computers so that they'll know they're on the same network. For example, give one a manual IP of 192.168.1.100 and the other one 192.168.1.101. Set the Router (or Gateway) address to 192.168.1.1 and the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0.
Once you've done either of the above procedures, turn on File Sharing on the OS X machine (it will be simpler). This is found in the Sharing Preference Pane. Then, on the OS 9 machine, open the Chooser and select AppleShare. The share name of your OS X machine should appear on the right side of the window. If not, click the Server IP Address button and enter the manual IP address you gave the OS X machine.
The OS 9 machine should then prompt you for a user name and password. Use the short version of your login name and password for the OS X machine. (The short version of your login name can be seen as the name of your OS X home folder if you don't already know what it is.)
Once you've authenticated, you'll be asked which volumes you want to connect to. In your case, you'll probably see both the main hard drive name and your short user name (home folder) from the OS X machine. It doesn't matter which you select, but if you choose the user name, you'll only be able to copy items into your home folder.
With plain guest access, you'll only be able to see the contents of the other computers' public folders and upload stuff into (but not look inside) the Drop Box.
If you want full access to the computers, you'll need to choose the option to log in as a registered user instead of as a guest. You'll then need the login name and password for the account on the remote computers you want to have access to.
Thank you kindly for your response,
mike
You'll need to install the photosmart drivers, then once that's done, click Add, click Other Printers..., select HP Photosmart, then select your printer.
Tom
I have a wallstreet running 9.2 that I want to transfer files from to a g4 desktop. The wallstreet has ethernet, if I connect the two with a crossover will the laptop show up as a new drive on the desktop? Is there a specific way to setup my laptop? Thanks.
We want to set up a network using 2 macs running on OS X 10 and to be able to use a printer and scanner which is already attached to one of the macs.
In this instance, I presume, that ethernet is the way to go. Is it possible for us to use a firewire cable to share access to printer/scanner as against ethernet[save that for when we are using the internet?].
I think I am overloaded with all this..am going around in circles.
If you have a link, that would be appropriate, please post it...I don't expect a ''full'' explanation. I have tried the 'apple help', but couldn't find anything that was ''helpful''.
thanks muchly,
Chris
Hey hi, i want to connect two G5 using a D-link router to share internet and a printer, one g5 uses "phantom" and the other one the "tiger" I do not have any clue how to do it!!!! Please help me out!
I just got a new mac OS X Version 10.5.1 laptop and i currently have a Mac OS X version 10.3.9. I hooked a cable up to both of them connecting one another to each computer but how do i get my files off my big computer to my new laptop?
Then, on the 10.5 machine, head to the Go menu in the Finder, and select Connect To Server. If the 10.3 machine doesn't automatically show up, you can try connecting manually by putting in the 10.3 machine's local IP address. You can find this by going to the Network panel on the 10.3 machine's System Preferences. Once you connect, the 10.5 machine will ask you to log in. Don't use guest...type in the user name of your account on the 10.3 machine and your password. If it all works, then the 10.3 machine's hard drive should appear as a shared volume on your 10.5 machine, and you can copy files at will.
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