Mac/Windows networking question

[Matt T]

First of all, my appologies if this is in the wrong forum - I wasn't sure if I should put this here or in the client forum. But, anyway...

I'm finally getting myself a mac this year but my parents can barely understand Windows so they're gonna have the PC upstairs and I'll have the mac downstairs in my room.

We only have one phone line in the house and I'm on the internet pretty much whenever I'm in the house. When I get my Mac, my parents will want to use the internet on the PC while I'm on the internet with the Mac. Is there anyway we can network the Mac and the PC so they can share the same internet connect at the same time, wirelessly?

We would like to do it wirelessly because a huge cable going all the way through the house is both ugly and annoying. Could we do something like this with AirPort Extreme or something? I'm not even sure if Windows supports Airport...

anyway, that's my question :)

[bankajac]

If you have a cable modem or DSL you just plug in a wireless router and can share the connection. I don't know if it is possible with dial-up, but I don't think so because it would be extremely slow.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

As Bankajac said, it would be much easier if you had a Broadband (cable/DSL) connection. Wireless routers are cheap and easy to set up.

I don't remember if Airport Extreme includes a dial-up modem... For some reason I think they used to, but I know very little of Airport except that it's a pretty standard 802.11b/g wireless access point. I don't know if it includes a router/switch though.

If dial-up is your only option, you can still do what you want... but it will be harder and it will be slow (but i guess you're used to that).

I don't know how you would set it up on the Mac exactly, but if the Windows computer dials your ISP, it can share its internet connection of the network once you have it set up. In this case, all you should have to do is point your Mac to your PC's IP address as the gateway.

[illippinno]

Or...

Get a wireless card for your system and hopefully one of your neighbors have an unsecure network =]

I just mention that because I know ALOT of people these days have wireless networks, and most of them do not have them secure. It's hard to find a location these days where you can't tap into someone else's network. When I got my iBook, I decided to drive around neighborhoods and see if I can get access, and turns out, I would say the majority of the time I could.

Take my friends for example, who get free wireless through their neighbors in their apartment. They detect at least THREE wireless networks they can choose from and they don't have to pay for internet at all =]

Just an evil suggestion =]

[Southern Patriot]

Assuming that the Windows machine will be the one with the dial-up connection (it can be done the other way around too):

1. You will need a wireless card in the Windows machine and your Mac.

2. Activate Internet Connection Sharing on Windows, shared over the Wireless card.

3. Connect from your Mac to the Windows machine wirelessly (the cards will need to be in Ad-hoc mode), and you should be able to connect to the internet through it.

It's been a while since I've set up ICS on a machine with a dial-up connection, I believe you can set ICS to allow the remote machines to activate the connection to the internet. Yes, it can be slow when both machines are online at the same time, but it's not as bad as you might think, unless both are doing some heavy downloading at the same time.

Instead of putting the cards in ad-hoc mode, you can also connect a wireless router directly to the Windows machine, just be sure the connection is going into the WAN port on the router (this may need a crossover cable, depending on the computer and router). In this case, you would use a wired network card on the Windows machine instead of a wireless one.

[Matt T]

ok, thanks guys :)

[iconboy]

dial up? yuck! why dont you have high speed intrawebb? ;)

[Matt T]

ooh, one more question - if my mac has AirPort Extreme built into it, all I would need is an AirPort Extreme card for my PC and an AirPort Extreme base station - correct?

[Southern Patriot]

ooh, one more question - if my mac has AirPort Extreme built into it, all I would need is an AirPort Extreme card for my PC and an AirPort Extreme base station - correct?

585769479[/snapback]

Sort of. You can use your AirPort Extreme card in your Mac with any 802.11G base station, and you would need an 802.11G card for your PC. Apple doesn't make AirPort Extreme cards for PC's, that's just their brand name for 802.11G.

[Matt T]

alright - and this would let me use the internet on my mac and pc at the same time with an ADSL connection?

[Southern Patriot]

alright - and this would let me use the internet on my mac and pc at the same time with an ADSL connection?

585769737[/snapback]

Yes it would. The ADSL modem would connect to the WAN port on the router.

[Matt T]

excellent, thanks alot for your help :)