Two questions: Network? Bluetooth HD?

[manosaurus]

First, I am getting tired of sticking my flash drive in and out of my three computers all the time to swap and share files. Is there a way that I can access all of my computers from each computer? Maybe through my wireless network which all the computers are connected to. I have an Apple desktop, Apple notebook and a couple years old Windows computer that I use occaionally. I know that my desktop and notebook can swap files through bluetooth file transfer but I really want to be able to access the entire computer, not just one "public" folder.

Also, is there a bluetooth external HD? Or a HD that connects to a network router? I want an external for my notebook for backup. I move around all the time and this would be neat to not have to wire up the HD everytime I want to do a backup or something.

I don't really care about data transfer rates. Bluetooth would be pretty slow for backing up I know.

Any ideas or or is this question totally retarded to begin with?

TIA!

 

[thewhitehart]

No, it's definitely not a stupid question. Wireless g is your best choice for wireless network sharing. Bluetooth would be very slow, but both technologies will be limited to sharing a mac's public folders without 3rd party sharing software. You will need a wireless router or access point, and wireless cards or usb adapters for your windows pcs. The windows pcs will be able to share any of its folders. On the mac you want to share, you'll need to set up a special user and activate "Windows Sharing" for that user in the "Sharing" pane of System Preferences. An entire home folder for that user will be available from a pc when accessed with username and password, so be careful which user you share on the mac.

Please see our guide to Networking with Windows on MacRumors, it's very helpful on getting started.

Oh yeah, there are plenty of options for network hard drives that connect to your router. Best Buy and Amazon have plenty of them.

 

[manosaurus]

No, it's definitely not a stupid question. Wireless g is your best choice for wireless network sharing. Bluetooth would be very slow, but both technologies will be limited to sharing a mac's public folders without 3rd party sharing software. You will need a wireless router or access point, and wireless cards or usb adapters for your windows pcs. The windows pcs will be able to share any of its folders. On the mac you want to share, you'll need to set up a special user and activate "Windows Sharing" for that user in the "Sharing" pane of System Preferences. An entire home folder for that user will be available from a pc when accessed with username and password, so be careful which user you share on the mac.

Please see our guide to Networking with Windows on MacRumors, it's very helpful on getting started.

Hey, thanks for the swift reply! I'll definitely check out that guide.

Currently, all of my computers are connected to a netgear wireless router which is connected to a BB cable modem. iMac connected via ethernet, MBP connected wirelessly and my windows computer has no wireless card in it so I got some $40 linksys USB adaptor thingy so it can pick up the wireless signal from the netgear router.

So, from what your saying, I can't really access my entire iMac files from my notebook and vice versa w/o some software but I can access my entire windows files from my notebook?

Thanks again!

 

[wildmac]

Hey, thanks for the swift reply! I'll definitely check out that guide.

Currently, all of my computers are connected to a netgear wireless router which is connected to a BB cable modem. iMac connected via ethernet, MBP connected wirelessly and my windows computer has no wireless card in it so I got some $40 linksys USB adaptor thingy so it can pick up the wireless signal from the netgear router.

So, from what your saying, I can't really access my entire iMac files from my notebook and vice versa w/o some software but I can access my entire windows files from my notebook?

Thanks again!

You can connect a network HD to the router, and have everything connect to that to share. Depends on what you want to spend. There are low-budget solutions that require you to turn on file sharing on your systems, or, if oyu have the $$, you can get a network NAS HD and use it as a file server. Depends on the budget and storage requirements.

Tell us a bit more about what you want to share, and we can come up with some suggestions.

 

[manosaurus]

You can connect a network HD to the router, and have everything connect to that to share. Depends on what you want to spend. There are low-budget solutions that require you to turn on file sharing on your systems, or, if oyu have the $$, you can get a network NAS HD and use it as a file server. Depends on the budget and storage requirements.

Tell us a bit more about what you want to share, and we can come up with some suggestions.

Well, I want to share mainly audio files and it would be nice to clone or sync (prefer he latter) each of my systems HD's to one external for sharing purposes.

What would be really great is if I could get the 3 systems to automatically and regularly clone themsleves. This might be more than I can handle though.

I have a $200 credit at this computer store in my area and I would be willing to go another $100 or $150 to get some external drive that could do this.

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

[Mlebout]

No, it's definitely not a stupid question. Wireless g is your best choice for wireless network sharing. Bluetooth would be very slow, but both technologies will be limited to sharing a mac's public folders without 3rd party sharing software. You will need a wireless router or access point, and wireless cards or usb adapters for your windows pcs. The windows pcs will be able to share any of its folders. On the mac you want to share, you'll need to set up a special user and activate "Windows Sharing" for that user in the "Sharing" pane of System Preferences. An entire home folder for that user will be available from a pc when accessed with username and password, so be careful which user you share on the mac.

Please see our guide to Networking with Windows on MacRumors, it's very helpful on getting started.

Oh yeah, there are plenty of options for network hard drives that connect to your router. Best Buy and Amazon have plenty of them.

What do you mean by public folders? I can read all folders and files from my PC (except Applications).

 

[wildmac]

Well, I want to share mainly audio files and it would be nice to clone or sync (prefer he latter) each of my systems HD's to one external for sharing purposes.

What would be really great is if I could get the 3 systems to automatically and regularly clone themsleves. This might be more than I can handle though.

I have a $200 credit at this computer store in my area and I would be willing to go another $100 or $150 to get some external drive that could do this.

Thanks again for all the replies!

I see problems getting systems to clone themselves to a shared HD unit. Since you have multiple OS's that's asking for trouble. One or the other won't like the file format.

Besides, for cloning, you really want a backup that you can boot from, so you can restore. So, if cloning/restore is the purpose, I would get separate external HDs that you can use to restore each system from. They are getting pretty cheap now. Remember that the Macbook won't boot from a USB drive, so you need an external firewire drive. (Not sure what windows requires).

The shared HD is great for sharing files, but, not for cloning.