# Connecting 2 Macs?



## wicky (Oct 17, 2006)

I've got two Mac's both connecting to the web using a wireless connection. Using a crossover cable, I want to connect them directly for better transfer speed.

What's the best method to achieve this, and how do I get them to transfer using the lead rather then using the wireless connection?


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## gsahli (Oct 17, 2006)

Go to Network > Built-in ethernet prefs on each and set a manual IP address - example 192.168.2.5 and 192.168.2.6. Turn on file sharing (probably already did). Go to the Go menu > Connect to server and enter afp://192.168.2.x (x appropriate to the other computer).


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## eric2006 (Oct 17, 2006)

You don't need a crossover cable - your mac automatically detects the type of connection.


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## barhar (Oct 18, 2006)

Without knowing the Mac models ... 'Using a crossover cable' ... instead of ... 'You don't need a crossover cable - your mac automatically detects the type of connection' - is a reasonable approach.

Yes, the (unknown model) Macs may - but then, may not - have (Ethernet port) auto configuration.

I still keep, within reach, a crossover cable ... just in case.


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## eric2006 (Oct 18, 2006)

If one of the macs is the following, you do not need a crossover cable:


> Products that do not require a crossover cable
> 
> iMac (17-inch 1GHz) and later
> eMac (ATI Graphics) and later
> ...


http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42717


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## Natobasso (Oct 18, 2006)

If you want the best transfer speeds, you should connect those computers directly to your router via ethernet. But if that's not an option, you can use a crossover cable to connect your macs; that's what it's good for.


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## wicky (Oct 18, 2006)

** The Mac's are a G5 and an older G4 (2nd / 3rd gen) ** 

I asked about the crossover because that's what I have in front of me. I assumed that connecting both Mac's via the crossover might result in 1000 BaseT transfer rates, instead of the rubbish speed that my router is giving me.

The wireless connection is provided via a router in another room. If the router remains attached to the main telephone socket (not via an extension) it provides a 16meg connection... very sweet! If it is moved away from this position the rate drops off to just over 5meg. You can understand my reluctance to move it?

What I'm looking for is the easiest way to permanently connect the 2 Mac's together, via the leads that I have, incurring no (or little) additional expense. 

Gsahli - Would I need to connect each time the machine restarted via the "Go" menu? Obviously not a problem, but seems a bit messy and long winded, can this be achieved automatically?


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## fryke (Oct 18, 2006)

("Mac's" is wrong. "Macs" is correct. Thread title corrected.)


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## wicky (Oct 18, 2006)

Yes, you're grammatically correct in terms of possession... but maybe not in respect of abbreviation. Well spotted!

Will you be amending all of the other spelling mistakes and grammatical inaccuracies throughout the forum?


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## g/re/p (Oct 18, 2006)

rotflmao



wicky said:


> Yes, you're grammatically correct in terms of possession... but maybe not in respect of abbreviation. Well spotted!
> 
> Will you be amending all of the other spelling mistakes and grammatical inaccuracies throughout the forum?


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## wicky (Oct 18, 2006)

g/re/p said:


> rotflmao



Thanks, but could you expand on this?


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## g/re/p (Oct 18, 2006)

no


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## wicky (Oct 18, 2006)

Soz... stupid question


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## bobw (Oct 18, 2006)

The name grep comes from an ancient Unix text editor called ed, the forerunner of ex, which is the forerunner of vi, which is the forerunner of vim. To search for a regular expression from ed, you&#8217;d use the command sequence g/re/p. g is for global (the whole file), /re/ is the regular expression to search for delimited by /, and p says to print matching lines (for example, display onscreen). Back in the days of ed, CPU power and memory were expensive, so to avoid the overhead of running a general-purpose editor to perform what is a very common task, a new specialized command was written. It was called, as you have already guessed, grep.


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## gsahli (Oct 18, 2006)

wicky ....back to your question ....
To have it automatically mount on start, mount it once and drag the icon to:
Syst Prefs > Accounts > your_username > Login Items

Since I don't use two network adapters at once (e.g. wireless and ethernet), please let us know if you see any problems.


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## wicky (Oct 18, 2006)

bobw said:


> The name grep comes from an ancient Unix text editor called ed, the forerunner of ex, which is the forerunner of vi, which is the forerunner of vim. To search for a regular expression from ed, youd use the command sequence g/re/p. g is for global (the whole file), /re/ is the regular expression to search for delimited by /, and p says to print matching lines (for example, display onscreen). Back in the days of ed, CPU power and memory were expensive, so to avoid the overhead of running a general-purpose editor to perform what is a very common task, a new specialized command was written. It was called, as you have already guessed, grep.



Thanks Bob. Although, I was actually making reference to "rotflmao" not the "g/re/p", because I didn't get it at first. Being the true country gent, I'm not great with gritty, urban "down town" speak. 

Word.

Gsahli, will do, and thanks for the help. Do I have to change the visible order in "System Perf's > Network > Network Status"? Any ideas?

Cheers


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## bobw (Oct 18, 2006)

*rotflmao

*Rolling on the Floor laughing my ass off


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## wicky (Oct 18, 2006)

bobw said:


> *rotflmao
> 
> *Rolling on the Floor laughing my ass off



Yeah, I got it... just not straight away.  Naively at first I thought it might have been an answer to my question, rather than a message of support.


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## Natobasso (Oct 18, 2006)

More on connecting two mac os x enabled comps with a crossover cable:
http://www.applelinks.com/p5/index.php/print/4460

As long as you keep them connected, you can make an alias of the computer you want to connect to and just double-click it when you want to connect instead of going to the "Go" menu.


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