Internet Connection Sharing

[dcv]

Could you please assist me to get my sister & her boyfriend set up on the internet? She has recently purchased a new iBook and he's got an older iBook which is already set up on the web. They've also purchased a wireless access point which i was going to set up for them last night but it turns out they've only got a USB (not ethernet as i had assumed) modem connected to his iBook, so i wasn't able to use this in conjunction with the wireless AP.

So for now I thought i'd try to share his internet connection.

Here is the scenario:

A = iBook running Panther, connected to internet with USB dsl modem
B = iBook running Tiger, would like to share A's connection

I have followed Mac Help to enable web sharing over Airport on iBook A

Question is how does iBook B 'see' the shared connection? (Sorry if this seems like a completely dumb question but i'm pretty new to this mac stuff myself and they are both clueless!)

Airport is ON on both. Should we get an option under the airport menu on B to see A's "network"?

Or do we connect from B to A by opening up Finder and connecting to A's machine in that way? if this is the case then do we log on as A, or do we need to set up some sort of account on A's machine for B to use? (am i being really thick here?!!)

anyway i tried logging on to A's machine as A (from iBook B) but for some reason it didn't work - kept coming back with incorrect username or password.

So then I tried to set up the USB DSL modem on iBook B to see if we could maybe share it the other way around. I couldn't get it to work. Does OS X not automatically detect new hardware like Windows does? I plugged in the usb modem and was expecting it to auto-detect it but it didnt. So we loaded up the CD and installed drivers etc but it didn't seem to add the entry for the "Hermstedt WebShuttle DSL modem" that we see in network preferences on iBook A. We gave up after a while of it not working as it was getting late, so I quit all the applications and ejected the CD. However the CD icon was still visible on the desktop and then we got the spinning beachball of death.... went on for about 15 mins plus... i tried to force quit but it didn't do anything and tried to power off but nothing. In the end we pulled the battery out to turn the machine off. Why did that happen? It is a BRAND NEW iBOOK!!

Anyway, sorry for the length of this post.

1. Could anyone please advise how we would get iBook B to see iBook A's shared connection? Am i correct in assuming that you can share using the airport cards, or do you have to physically wire them together?

2. Could you also advise on the hardware auto-detect issue - should tiger auto-detect USB devices as with windows or not? If it should, then does this mean that the USB ports are faulty?

3. any thoughts on why we got the spinning beachball of death on a brand new machine? how should you normally force quit or hard-reboot a machine if force-quit itself doesn't work? Could it be the RAM? Last week we added a 256MB module from a PowerBook which was originally supplied by Apple so it's not dodgy 3rd party RAM or anything.

 

[spinne1]

Am i correct in assuming that you can share using the airport cards, or do you have to physically wire them together?

Yes, you can share the airport cards using a software base station solution.

2. Could you also advise on the hardware auto-detect issue - should tiger auto-detect USB devices as with windows or not? If it should, then does this mean that the USB ports are faulty?

Yes, OS X auto-detects it, but that does not mean it always pops up a window to you saying, "Hey, look at me! I've auto-detected something!!! Hellooooo!!" Auto-detecting is not the same as configuring. OS X does not necessarily auto-configure all hardware attached to it. I highly doubt your USB ports are faulty. I bet if you reboot and redo the procedure to install the USB modem on computer B *following the directions in the USB modem's manual* you will be successful.

3. any thoughts on why we got the spinning beachball of death on a brand new machine? how should you normally force quit or hard-reboot a machine if force-quit itself doesn't work? Could it be the RAM? Last week we added a 256MB module from a PowerBook which was originally supplied by Apple so it's not dodgy 3rd party RAM or anything.

These can happen on any machine regardless of age. There are many reasons why it can happen. Too many to speculate. It is not a problem unless it keeps repeating itself, which it usually will not. A restart will normally fix it (along with repairing permissions, and perhaps cleaning up your cache and preference files--try Onyx). Yes, it could be the RAM. But unless it becomes a pattern, it is nothing to worry about. Also, is it for sure that the PowerBook RAM is compatible with your model of iBook? (not will it physically fit, but is it supposed to be installed in your model?)

 

[Applespider]

The USB modem will require drivers. Tiger has the common ones for printers/scanners/USB drives etc but not for every USB modem. Many of the Jaguar drivers didn't work under Panther and many of the Panther ones don't work under Tiger. This may be why you couldn't install them from the CD and got a beachball - bad USB devices can cause havoc. My old USB ADSL modem used to cause kernal panics regularly. Go look at the manufacturer's website and see if there are any updated ones there.

You're not going to get a USB modem working with an Airport base station - they require ethernet input. It really would be worthwhile seeing if you can get hold of an ethernet DSL modem. In the UK, they're under £30 now so I'm sure they're not that expensive in other places either and it will make life much easier. Or get an all in one (non-Apple) ADSL modem wireless router - they're about £70 in the UK now so again it's not too expensive.

I haven't shared the wireless signal (and not on my Mac so can't figure it out) before but I'd imagine that once you've set it up in A's Sharing Prefs as sharing something coming in from the USB source and outputting via Airport, you'll have a name for the network (probably the name of iBook A). Since I don't think you can hide the SSID broadcast from iBook A, you should just be able to turn on the Airport in iBook B and see the network. If not, then you should be able to click on 'Other' and enter the name of iBook A.

 

[Veldek]

Airport allows your computer(s) to receive wireless signals broadcast by a wireless transmitter, such as the one inside an Airport Base Station, or a wireless router. It does not allow you to pick up signals from another airport card sitting in another computer. [ie. does one radio pick up the signal from another radio sitting nearby?]

Are you sure about this? The difference is that radios don't emit signals while Airport cards do send and receive. I'm quite sure that you can use an Airport equipped Mac to share the internet with another Airport equipped one.

The solution in this case would be to share the "USB internet connection" which is not built into Mac OS X, AFAIK. That's why I second Applespider's recommendation to get an Ethernet modem and then share this connection.

 

[dcv]

Thanks everybody for your input.

I had assumed that they already had an ethernet modem, which I was going to connect to the Netgear wireless access point they recently bought so that they could both wirelessly connect to the internet. But when I went round there last night I realised that the modem they have is just USB - which is why i then tried to set up sharing, which they can use until they go out and purchase the correct hardware.

The modem is a Hermstedt WebShuttle (not a make i'd ever heard of before). I have since looked at the manufacturer's web site and found updated drivers - these are very recent so will hopefully have been updated for Tiger so I'll give that a go. I've also found the Mac OS X setup guide on the Demon internet page (their ISP) so i'll be sure to *follow the correct instructions* this time around Am going back over there tonight so hopefully can get something working for them!


This is an excerpt from Mac Help:

Sharing your Internet connection
If your computer is connected to the Internet, you can share its connection with other computers on your local network.

For example, if your computer is connected to the Internet using a DSL modem and has an AirPort Card installed, you can share the DSL connection with other AirPort-equipped computers.

On Windows computers, sharing your Internet connection is sometimes referred to as a "network bridge," or 'bridging your network."

Open System Preferences, click Sharing, and then click Internet.
Choose a network port from the "Share your connection from" pop-up menu.
Select "Built-in Ethernet" or AirPort depending on which computers will share your Internet connection.
In order to share your Internet connection and allow computers connected to your Internet connection to browse the web, you also need to turn on Personal Web Sharing on the Services pane of Sharing preferences.

...so from this i assumed that you could share the dsl connection between the 2 ibooks using the Airport cards. I suppose I could try connecting them together with an ethernet cable but then they obviously wouldn't be able to move very far! Should I use a crossover or normal patch lead for this? I have both.

But my question is still - how does the other computer access the shared connection? That isn't made clear in the mac help.


I am going to get them to buy a proper ethernet modem and/or all-in-one wireless router but i'm still investigating which is the best to buy to use in conjunction with an Airport Express. They are interested in getting an Airport Express to take advantage of the AirTunes and wireless printing functionality. I already have one but at the moment I have it connected to a wired router that i've borrowed from work as my previous wireless router broke and is currently being repaired. The signal strength on mine doesn't cover the entire flat so i'm looking for a suitable wireless modem/router that supports WDS so that I can set up wireless repeating and extend the wireless signal using the Airport express, rather than the airport express sitting as a client of the wireless network. I know there's a Linksys router that does this (via a hack using 3rd party firmware) but that model is just a router and we'd still need to purchase an ethernet modem as well. Once i figure out exactly which bits to buy I'll get my sister to buy the same.

 

[telecomm]

Should I use a crossover or normal patch lead for this? I have both.

It won't matter, the newer iBook (and possibly the older one too, depending on how old it is) will autodetect the cable type. As long as one computer autodetects, it will work.

But my question is still - how does the other computer access the shared connection? That isn't made clear in the mac help.

I used to do this all the time, but I can't remember now... I think you've got to set-up sharing on the connected computer, and then you'll see the airport symbol (if you've got it showing in the menu bar) appear as an upwards arrow. Then, with Aiport turned on on the other computer, click on the airport icon in the menu bar and under "computer to computer" you should see the name of the other computer, and after connecting you should have web access. Also, I seem to remember having also to turn "Personal Web Sharing" on in the Sharing preferences of the computer that's doing the sharing.

Good luck!

 

[dcv]

Thank you, I'll give it another go tonight then. Maybe the problem is that I only enabled sharing on the first computer and not the second one (i thought you'd only do this on the one WITH the internet connection to share). So I'll try enabling both and see what happens. Will also take along a bagful of cables!

 

[telecomm]

Thank you, I'll give it another go tonight then. Maybe the problem is that I only enabled sharing on the first computer and not the second one (i thought you'd only do this on the one WITH the internet connection to share).

Oops, I guess my instructions were a bit ambiguous—when I noted that sharing should be enabled on the "connected computer" I meant, in that case, the computer with the internet connection to share (i.e., the one connected to the net), not the computer which is connected to the other computer. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[dcv]

Oops, I guess my instructions were a bit ambiguous—when I noted that sharing should be enabled on the "connected computer" I meant, in that case, the computer with the internet connection to share (i.e., the one connected to the net), not the computer which is connected to the other computer. Sorry for the confusion!

Ahhh I see! Ok so that is already what I tried last night then. I did also check the 'enable web sharing' option - exactly as described in the Help. Well I will give it a go with the ethernet cable then as so far only tried to connect with airport.

If all else fails then I guess we might have to run out to the local PCWorld and buy a new modem/router, but as I mentioned previously I want to do a bit more research into using WDS before advising them which is the best product to buy.

 

[spinne1]

Are you sure about this? The difference is that radios don't emit signals while Airport cards do send and receive. I'm quite sure that you can use an Airport equipped Mac to share the internet with another Airport equipped one.

You are right. I was wrong. I looked it up. Airport can be used to send and receive and you don't have to have the Airport Base Station.

I edited my post to get rid of the erroneous information.