mac to windows networking

September 28, 2005 8:45 PM

I would like to network an older iMac (os 8.6) to an WinXp box so they can share a cable modem. Both have network cards and both have usb. What would be the best way to do this? Will I need special software for the mac?

I've networked a linux box and and an windows box before, and small windows networks. But what kind of tricks will I need to do it on a mac? Shoud I hook them up through their ethernet cards or is it possible to completly through usb?

I'm sort of lost on the mac. I haven't used one since 98 and haven't really known the system since the Mac II.

posted by nyxxxx to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

It's been a while since I used Classic Mac OS, but if I remember correctly you can just hook up to your ethernet and use DHCP. Is your cable modem also a router or hooked up to a router? That would be easiest.

Found some basic info here on setting up DHCP.

If you are trying to share the XP internet connection, that is a little harder. You would then hook up your cable modem by USB to the PC, set up the PC for internet sharing (look in the help files on your PC) and then connect to the Mac using your ethernet cards on each. I don't believe you can use the USB connection with OS 8, as I doubt there are drivers for it. So basically, it would be similar to sharing of a XP box with Linux using DHCP.

Routers are really cheap and also act as a great firewall. I would suggest going that route (no pun intended).
posted by qwip at 9:04 PM on September 28, 2005

Routers are really cheap and also act as a great firewall.

Amen
posted by caddis at 9:26 PM on September 28, 2005

I have a Linksys router that's pretty great. My father runs the same thing that you're trying to over at his place and he uses Linksys too.
posted by klangklangston at 9:38 PM on September 28, 2005

Rothko, that's brilliant.

myxxxx, do that.
posted by qwip at 1:04 AM on September 29, 2005

If you don't have a router already, you can use the XP box for that. Well, you could with 2000, so I'm assuming XP can too. You need to tick the "enable connection sharing" checkbox under network settings for the cable modem, which you will plug directly into the XP machine, probably with USB.

Wire the iMac to the XP box using an ethernet crossover cable (assuming that this is not part of some larger network with a switch). Set up a little IP network between the two of them (static IPs are fine and less hassle than DHCP) and tell the iMac that its "default gateway" is the XP machine. I've no idea how you actually do any network setup on OS8 though.
posted by polyglot at 5:23 AM on September 29, 2005

"If you don't have a router already, you can use the XP box for that."

You can do this, but you shouldn't. Using a Windows machine as a gateway does work, but it requires that you expose the Windows machine to the internet, which is a very, very bad idea.
posted by majick at 7:00 AM on September 29, 2005

Rothko: that's what I was planning, and what I had done before. I just needed to know if it would work with an iMac. That's a really good diagram. Thanks.
posted by nyxxxx at 11:39 AM on September 29, 2005