Simple Question which should have a simple answer :)

[owaters]

Hi,

I have a G4 Al PowerBook and I am wanting to newtork it with a friends PC Laptop via Ethernet. How simple is this to set up so we can easily transfer files from my Mac to her PC?

Thanks.

[Zammy-Sam]

Very easy!
Macosx: turn on Personal File Sharing and Windows Sharing in System Preferences -> Sharing.
Windows: share a certain folder: right click the folder and pick sharing.. (winxp)
C'est ca! Enjoy

[brianleahy]

Well, that's the software side of it. What about the physical setup?

You might be able to get away with simply connecting the two machines with a regular ethernet CAT5 cable. Failing that, use a hub, or an ethernet 'crossover' cable.

[mdnky]

For pure simplicity, just buy a 'cross-over cable'. A normal one (cable) will not work unless you have a router/hub in between the two computers.

[Zammy-Sam]

A normal one (cable) will not work unless you have a router/hub in between the two computers.

That's correct when you try to network between two pcs. When there is a network between mac to pc, you can take any twisted pair cable (no matter if regular or crossed). So, any cable that has two ends which fit into your network port will work

[scruffy]

Some ethernet cards are capable of figuring out if they need to do the 'crossover' themselves.

[profx]

as above - Any ethernet cable will do. It doesn't matter if it is a crossover or a regular cable. Apple has used clever NICs (ethernet card) in the powerbook range that auto detect if the computer is connected to a network or directly to another computer.

If that doesn't work straight off you may need to set IP addresses on both machines as Microsoft does not implement the rendezvous technology.

To do this:
Mac: Open System Prefs, open network, select ethernet. You want to configure manually. In the IP address type 192.168.1.10 you can leave the other fields blank (subnet mask should already be 255.255.255.0)

PC: open the network control panel, double click the ethernet controller icon, select the TCP/IP item and click properties, select the radio button that says configure manually, enter 192.168.1.11 in the IP address field, click apply and ok.

Your computers should now be able to "talk" each other. To double check on the PC select run from the start menu and type "cmd" then type "ping 192.168.1.10" (note thats the IP address of your Mac) in the dos prompt. You should get back something that resemble some thing like this

64 bytes from 192.168.1.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.303 ms

If it says timed-out or unreachable then something's wrong.

You should now be able to connect via file sharing etc as normal.


Just a side rant/note. Why oh why didn't Microsoft implement the auto-detect crossover NICs in the XBox? That would have made life a little easier...


Any problems post back!