Network two Macs, one without Airport

August 10, 2006 10:53 AM

Is there some easy way to set up a network between two Macs (OS 10.3) in close proximity but using different Internet connections? One has wireless (and Bluetooth), but the other doesn't.

For internet access, one (mine) is an iBook using the neighbor's wireless ;-) and my boss's is an iMac with a cable modem. He has no Airport card.

We need to exchange documents faster than emailing them back and forth.
Is there a easy Internet-based solution, or a simple cable we can get?
There's also the possibility of me getting on his modem's wireless signal - we haven't figured that out yet. We're looking for cheap and easy.
Thank you!
-philips

posted by wavejumper to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Run a sufficiently long Ethernet ("CAT5" or "CAT5e") cable between them, if they're in close proximity. You don't have to use wireless.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:59 AM on August 10, 2006

Yeah, the great thing about mac hardware is that you can use a regular ethernet cable between two macs (no need for a cross over one). Give a fake internal IP to your ethernet connection on each (say 10.0.0.1 on yours and 10.0.0.2 on theirs) and then connect either via FTP sharing, windows smb sharing, or appletalk sharing. You should be able to mount a folder on each others' desktop that you can drop files onto and transfer via ethernet.
posted by mathowie at 11:14 AM on August 10, 2006

If you don't want to disconnect your boss' computer from the internet to sling files around, you can also get a USB ethernet dongle for each computer. It will give you a second ethernet port which you can connect the two computers with.

Set up the new network interfaces using private IPs (eg, ones that start with 192.168.0. or 10.0.0.), so for example have one computer be 10.0.0.1 and the other be 10.0.0.2. Set the netmask for the USB ethernet interface to 255.255.255.0.

You should be ready to rock.
posted by kfx at 11:28 AM on August 10, 2006

You can also use the Firewire ports to set up a small network...
posted by Gungho at 2:01 PM on August 10, 2006

You can get a good wireless router for around 50 bucks. Just make sure it has an extra ethernet port so your boss can plug in his iMac, and you'll have a nice little network for sharing.
posted by feaverish at 12:48 PM on August 11, 2006

Hamachi, anyone>?
posted by mikewas at 5:15 PM on August 13, 2006