Connecting two Macs

[moribundman]

Okay, thanks everyone for your advice and tips! I don't care about wireless, because I don't want to be connected 24/7. It's a temptation without that I can do just fine. I'll look into setting up a router, because this seems to be the most sensible solution for my purposes.

PS: Everybody has now one week from today to spell as well or poorly as they want or can without me getting annoying. Just trying to keep you on your toes!

 

[Zee1]

where is ScottB when you need him?

 

[The Critic]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zee1:
where is ScottB when you need him?

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Out with the rice rocket gang on the Scion forum.

 

[Zee1]

not the Scion forums? those things aren't fashionable at all

 

[tmorris1]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman:
I don't think earthlink allows me to have two computers online at the same time. That was my main issue from the beginning in regard to connecting the two computers with one being online. I do not want both online at the same time.

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You can have both online at once with a router because it will only request 1 IP address from Earthlink. That is the purpose of a router. As far as Earthlink knows you only have a single computer connected. If you use a hub or switch, each computer will try to request an IP address from Earthlink, which they will not allow.

 

[simple_gifts]

BUY THE ROUTER. Trying to set up one mac as a router will be far more difficult (to understand) than anyone here wants to explain, because it involves two subnets, a default route, static routes, etc.

BTW, my brother has GCI cable internet in Alaska, with their topology and DHCP there is no way they can determine two machines from one house are connecting. My brothers office hooked up 3 machines to a hub and got 3 ip addresses (too bad their shared folders were visible to everyone on the street!)

 

[moribundman]

Okay, what's involved in setting up the router? What hardware do I need and how do I need to set up the two Macs? One's an ancient G3 iMac, the other one is new iMac (Core Duo Intel). Be gentle, I'm utterly clueless.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

You need a router. Here's two wired router options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833122008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833338009

You'll need two network cables. The Linksys option above has 1 included in the box.

14ft cable:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16800000011

Buy these, hook them up, then come back here for further help.

 

[tmorris1]

quote:

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Originally posted by simple_gifts:
BTW, my brother has GCI cable internet in Alaska, with their topology and DHCP there is no way they can determine two machines from one house are connecting. My brothers office hooked up 3 machines to a hub and got 3 ip addresses (too bad their shared folders were visible to everyone on the street!)

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They can definitely tell that he is getting 3 IP addresses, but either they don't care, or haven't found out yet.

 

[moribundman]

Hmm, so it's not that easy?

What about the Linksys BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with 4-Port 10/100 Switch? It has good reviews.

 

[simple_gifts]

quote:

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BEFSR41

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I have one of these, as do my 70+ year old parents. I had them online in 5 minutes over the phone.

I'm any # of us could talk you through setting it up. Heck you might even be able to call us.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

mori, it's THAT easy.

Buy the one you think is better. Just about all of them do the same thing. Some are better than others and vendors do go thru spurts of bad product. Netgear and Linksys all have had bad product runs. Buy what you think is best, then come back here

 

[moribundman]

Hmm, I found these instructions.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Do you run FireFox on your older Mac?

 

[moribundman]

All that's left of my older iMac is the hard drive. I transplanted the HD into another, identical iMac. I used to have a partitioned HD and used Firefox on OSX (10.1.3).

Now I have only OS9 (9.2.2) installed. I didn't install Firefox after transplanting and wiping the HD, because I didn't plan on using this computer online. IE 4.5 and NS 4.7. are installed.

The new iMac runs on OSX (10.4.7).

 

[Mystic]

You can easily connect two Macs using a firewire cable.

 

[moribundman]

Yes, I have been using the firewire. Going offline and rewiring ten times a day has been driving me nuts (more nuts than usual). And then there's the issue of the compatibility between OSX and OS9 being not all that stable. Sometimes one computer won't "see" the other one.

Anyway, I got the Linksys BEFSR41, and the plugging-everything-in part worked just swell.

What doesn't work is the configuration wizard, and I have no idea how to set the router up without it. So much for "Just plug it in, How difficult could it be? Even my great grandparents can do it!" As I said, the plugging in part I got down! Only that's not enough.

 

[simple_gifts]

So Mori, you are not hooked up yet?

 

[moribundman]

I don't like repeating myself.

 

[simple_gifts]

What is the configuration wizard? The router should be set up via a web front end from your computer. You have set your Network setting to DHCP and then plug into the router and reboot your machine. Then call up a browser and point it to 192.168.1.1, no username pasword is "admin"; You no longer use any connection software on the computer side. PM'ing you with my P#.