Networking PC/Mac

[Joyofsox]

I use a Dell inspiron laptop, and network in my work office and my home office with PCs with reasonable success.
Now Mrs Soxy has been given an old G3 Mac ibook, and I want to share the broadband connection. Is there any quick and straightforward way to do this.
I don't really need to share files as she uses her ibook just for fun, and my laptop is full of drawings and work photos.
Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Stubble Boy]

I know nothing about Macs, but surely a wireless router and wireless adaptor would be your best bet. I'm assuming you don't already have wireless. If you didn't want to go down this route there is a way of daisy chaining PCs together which is documented in your Windows help & support text, but it's a bit clumsy and, like I say, I know nowt about Macs...

[Joyofsox]

The trouble is I live in a 300 yr old house with 18 inch thick walls. Wireless doesnt go through.
I hoped there might be some software to use cross wired ethernet cable, as this is all I do to link 2 PCs.
I ran all the necessary wiring when I rewired the house.

[monosodium]

The trouble is I live in a 300 yr old house with 18 inch thick walls. Wireless doesnt go through.
I hoped there might be some software to use cross wired ethernet cable, as this is all I do to link 2 PCs.
I ran all the necessary wiring when I rewired the house.

If you can do a wired connection then just get an ordinary router. A router is by far the best way to go anyway if possible as it acts as an external firewall.

[Joyofsox]

Thanks Mono.
I'll have a go at that.

[Lucylastic]

Don't know if this would be useful to you.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19652

Go Apple, Yayyyy!

[michelleforfun]

I have a similar constellation - I use my Dell as the gateway computer and allow the mac to access via the internal ethernet connection between the two. Works fine.
Hope that helps

[monosodium]

I just had another thought while I was pointing and laughing at yet another machine turned into a toaster at the hands of cosmicb...

You said your house has thick walls - what about the floors - I bet they're not too thick. Is there a chance you could pop the wireless router in the top of the roof? directly above the main wall through the middle of the house? If you mount it right you'd be low on blind-spots that way and cover the house in one go...

[Joyofsox]

I have acquired a wireless router and am trying to set it up. It doesn't seem to like the mac though. I will persevere as I don't like to be beaten by a box of wires.

[Lucylastic]

Soxy, let the Mac do the work. Does it see the router and which OS do you have?

[Joyofsox]

It sees it but does not allow me to enter my ISP details and login. As the mac will be used wireless and the Dell laptop wired, I am inclined to try using the Dell to enter all the details then add the mac later. It will happen - one day.

[monosodium]

Using either the dell or the mac should work fine, but it would have to be via a wired connection. Many routers don't allow the wireless connections to edit the router settings.

Oh, and don't forget to change the password on your router if you haven't done it yet.

[Joyofsox]

Ta again mono. It will happen, but for the moment I am concentrating on working out a 'loftbox' system to get the tv signal around the house. I've just got freesat worked out so that will complicate things further. Again 18" walls interfere with the best routes.

[ashleywilliams]

Did you ever get this sorted, i noted you lived in an old house so wireless may not work very well, you could try ethernet over power follow this link

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/default_ShopGroup.asp?ShopGroupID=61&Alt=Yes

Ash

[jinjin]

My brother lives in an old house with thick walls and had difficulty with wireless too. He solved his problem by running a wire to each level on the house and connecting a wireless router in each level to serve as access points. He choose this solution over using repeaters because each repeater in the path reduces the effective bandwidth by 50%.

Only the router with the WAN port connected to the Internet was configured as a gateway. The other routers were configured as access points (he could have brought wireless access points but wireless routers usually cost less because of higher volume of sale).

All routers were assigned a fixed IP address in the same subnet. Extended options such as firewall, and DHCP, QoS, etcetera were disabled on the routers configured as access points.

Finally, he used the same SSID and frequency on all routers to provide seamless roaming throughout the house for laptops.