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Networking Advice... Sorry

D

dylan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 9, 2005
368
0
I know this has probably been covered a million times but I have searched for the last 30 min to no avail. So here it goes...

I have an iMac G4 that is connected to an AirPort Express wirelessly. The express is then hooked up to a DSL modem. There is also another iMac G4 in another room that I would like to be able to access the internet with. The only problem is it doesn't have an AirPort card.

Today I went out and got a "Network Patch Cable" to connect the two iMacs. But there is no communication between the two. Do I need a crossover cable instead. I was under the impression that the iMacs worked fine with any ethernet cable... but they don't seem to.

So basically I need to share my AirPort internet connection with the other computer over ethernet. What is the best way to do this?
 
What you need is a router for a proper network. You can find them fairly cheaply these days, especially on eBay.
 
Internet sharing is on. There doesn't seem to be any straightforward documentation or I'm just not looking in the right places. I thought it was just a simple matter of hooking them together. I didn't think I'd need another router...
 
dylan said:
Internet sharing is on. There doesn't seem to be any straightforward documentation or I'm just not looking in the right places. I thought it was just a simple matter of hooking them together. I didn't think I'd need another router...
Click to expand...

So Internet sharing is on and set to 'Share my connection from Airport to computers connected via built in ethernet'? You'll also need to enable personal web sharing in the Firewall settings on the connecting computer.

Have you checked the Network settings of the connecting computer? If you go to Network Status, what does it say about your ethernet port?
 
Gee said:
So Internet sharing is on and set to 'Share my connection from Airport to computers connected via built in ethernet'? You'll also need to enable personal web sharing in the Firewall settings on the connecting computer.

Have you checked the Network settings of the connecting computer? If you go to Network Status, what does it say about your ethernet port?
Click to expand...

I turned on both of those things yes. The ethernet port doesn't show up under status.... :confused:
 
Before this continues, can anyone verify that iMac G4s have autosensing ethernet ports? Meaning - you can use either a regular ethernet cable or a crossover and it will switch itself to what it needs.
 
If you Show > Built in Ethernet in the Netowrk Pref, what does it say? Are there any numbers and such in there, or it is all blank?

You could also try opening Network Utility in the Utilities folder in Applications - this will tell you if your ethernet port is connected to anything, and you can also Ping your other computer to see if they're (secretly!) talking...
 
Today I went out and got a "Network Patch Cable" to connect the two iMacs. But there is no communication between the two. Do I need a crossover cable instead. I was under the impression that the iMacs worked fine with any ethernet cable... but they don't seem to.

Yes, I have successfully connected 2 mac's with a standard ethernet cable
 
Gee said:
If you Show > Built in Ethernet in the Netowrk Pref, what does it say? Are there any numbers and such in there, or it is all blank?

You could also try opening Network Utility in the Utilities folder in Applications - this will tell you if your ethernet port is connected to anything, and you can also Ping your other computer to see if they're (secretly!) talking...
Click to expand...

No numbers and it is on DHCP. It's not connected to anything. Could someone please post a step-by-step how to on this. I'm probably just missing something. Thanks.
 
Anyone have any ideas? I followed Apples direction but it still doesn't work. They don't seem to be able to "talk" to each other.
 
Just guessing really - but i don't think you can use DHCP in this situation, because the non-airport mac won't have access to the DCHP server to get the numbers.

Have a look at what numbers the airport mac has for an IP address (under ethernet) set the other one to manual, and enter an IP address that matches except for the last digit (eg xxx.xxx.xxx.3), copy the other numbers (subnet, router etc).
 
Blackheart said:
Before this continues, can anyone verify that iMac G4s have autosensing ethernet ports? Meaning - you can use either a regular ethernet cable or a crossover and it will switch itself to what it needs.
Click to expand...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42717

I think the iMac G4 series is split right in the middle (older LCD vs. newer/faster/bigger later rev iMac G4s) between needing xover vs. patch, so in the end it depends on the specs for your G4.

frankblundt said:
Just guessing really - but i don't think you can use DHCP in this situation, because the non-airport mac won't have access to the DCHP server to get the numbers.

Have a look at what numbers the airport mac has for an IP address (under ethernet) set the other one to manual, and enter an IP address that matches except for the last digit (eg xxx.xxx.xxx.3), copy the other numbers (subnet, router etc).
Click to expand...
When you turn on internet sharing, it starts bootpd/dhcpd on the computer. How can I guess this? 'Cause I'm sharing my wifi over a laptop and a desktop right now and my console is being spammed with "bootpd[343] DHCP REQUEST [en0] ...some_mac_address <hostname>
ACK sent hostname 192.168.2.2 pktsize 300" stuff all the time.

I haven't had much luck with manual IP addresses and the built in dhcpd s*it in the airports, and if you were sharing, that wouldn't be much help.


If your iMac is the older iMac without an autosensing ethernet port, either you can fiddle around with your current patch cable and switch a couple wire pairs and get a crossover cable out of it...you can go buy a crossover cable (explicitly marked crossover...crossover is NOT the same as a patch cable), or you can get an adapter for the patch cable (something like http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/7470/ but egads, you can buy like 3 cables for the price of one adapter...)
 
Well I went out and got a crossover cable and $40 later... I plugged it in and everything just started working. Except for one problem... The computer using w/o airport will not show up on the other computer unless ethernet is dragged above airport in the network pref pane which then disconnects me from the internet.

Is there a way around this. Thanks for all of your help I really appreciate it. :)
 
dylan said:
Well I went out and got a crossover cable and $40 later... I plugged it in and everything just started working. Except for one problem... The computer using w/o airport will not show up on the other computer unless ethernet is dragged above airport in the network pref pane which then disconnects me from the internet.

Is there a way around this. Thanks for all of your help I really appreciate it. :)
Click to expand...
What do you mean "will not show up"? If you need to get the computer mounted like a drive, get the IP address (in the Network prefpane, or in Terminal "ifconfig", or in windows in command prompt "ipconfig") and go to Finder, Go > Connect to Server, type in the IP address and hit Connect.
 
janey said:
What do you mean "will not show up"? If you need to get the computer mounted like a drive, get the IP address (in the Network prefpane, or in Terminal "ifconfig", or in windows in command prompt "ipconfig") and go to Finder, Go > Connect to Server, type in the IP address and hit Connect.
Click to expand...

Yes I can do that but... If they are on the same subnet the computers should show up in each others finder network browser. Right?

Here's the configuration...

the Airport Express is on 10.0.1.1

the 1st imac is connected wirelessly using 10.0.1.2, 255.255.255.0, 10.0.1.1

it is then redirecting the signal via ethernet using 192.168.2.1, 255.255.255.0

the second imac is connect via ethernet using 192.168.2.2, 255.255.255.0, 192.168.2.1

Now at one point I had it working perfectly except that the 2nd imac wouldn't show up in the network browser of the 1st. I resolved that by dragging the ethernet port above the airport in the network pref pane. But of course this killed my internet connection.

So I'm looking for a way to have the computers show up in each others network browsers while still having an internet connection.

I hope that makes sense

Also I tried setting everything to the same subnet but that killed my internet connection for some reason. I really wish I understood how all this stuff works.
 
janey said:
can you like, not live with that feature or something? Never really worked for me, so..
Click to expand...

It would be nice as my mother is not all that computer savvy so easiest is best. But not crucial no, I just thought of it as a sign that things aren't quite right yet. Right now nothing is working and I have no idea why. I tried trashing the network.config preference file and anything else network related but the settings still don't appear to be default. I would just like a fresh start to work from. Unless there is a simple solution... I still have no idea what all the numbers should be.
 
Looks like this guy had the same problem.

now the computers can see each other but the internet isn't working. this is really aggravating :mad:
 
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