Building a wireless mac network

M

Muhneer

Registered
This is a great board with lots of information. especially for mac newbie like me :p

I have a job for my boss to do, he likes a wireless network with his neigbour at his home.

They have 2 iBooks and a older Powermac.
They would like to internet over the same adsl connection and save their documents central on the Powermac..

So the 2 iBooks must connect to the internet and the Powermac serves as a kind of server with a traffic (workhour administration) program.

Could someone help me and tell me which software and hardware i need?

I know i need an Airport module and for both iBooks a Airport card.

would like to thank in advance ..

greetings jeroen (netherlands)
 
I'm not sure what the "workhour administration program" is, but... This is how my network works -- without ANY extra software:
Buy a combination Wireless access point & (4 or 5 port wired) router instead of Airport base station. I use a Netgear MR314 (but it's now 2 years old so you may need a newer model). This is fully compatible with the Airport cards in the iBooks. The router has a single wired connection from the dsl modem, then the router serves as firewall and DHCP server for all the computers in the local area network (LAN). No other software needed! Don't count on "reliable" wireless connections more than about 20 meters through walls.
 
i see.

thanks, but why do you recommend an wireless acces point above the airport ? and the airport isn't able to go further then 20 metres through walls ??

Thanks in advance
 
I don't have any of the Airport Base Stations, but I think they only have one ethernet-out port, which for me was limiting and required buying a switch or hub (for example, if you want anything else on the ethernet, like an HP printer, etc.). I think the range of Airport is the same as I was saying -- about 20 meters through walls. I can go to my neighbor's house, OK, but not to the next house. The other brands of wireless access point have more features for less money.
 
I agree with gsahli a non-Apple WAP is the way to go. Just getting a WAP to do all your NAT and not worrying about any software is defiantly the best if it's not your network and you don't want to mess with it.

I also like his/her choice of Netgear I have never had a problem with any of Netgear's equipment. A simple WAP with a 4 or 5 port switch is probably your best course of action too. It will allow for easy addition of wired nodes on your network. Also make sure to get a switch over a hub, if that network ever expands and gets wired nodes at each house (if that is the case) it would increase performance when the network gets larger. An example would be if you added another switch at the house w/o the WAP and it had 3 or 4 wired nodes. Just a thought, anyway...

Hope that helps,
\\\\ bootleg
 
yeah thanks, it gets clearer to me.. Do i need different software like the normal mac os to get the power mac funding as an kind of central storage thing.. ?
 
the airport base station is basically the same thing as any WAP, but they both have their advantages. The airport is easier to set up on an all mac network, it basically does its thing automatically. but a generic WAP generally has more wired ethernet ports and is easier to configure differently.
And to make the powermac function as a central server you really don't need any extra software, but a database program like filemaker is a nice addition. You can just set up a user and let both your neighbor and you have the password and login to the account, then you can both access the files kept in that users directory.
 
I have a job for my boss to do
Click to expand...

Heh, did anybody else chuckle over those words? Sorry for not offering any help.... I'm hungry. Maybe my hunger is making me laugh at the lil things...

Hmm, three computers sharing the same connection... and one of them serving as the computer where things can be stored? I think I know how to do that. I'll get back to it when I'm less hungry and less tired, if there's still a need. Again, sorry... :(
 
The airport is a WAP (wireless access point). The Netgear is a WAP as well. They both are also internet routers that offer features such as NAT and DHCP. The advantage the Netgear has over the airport is that it also has a four port switch built in. The advantage is that if you have other wired computers/printers, you can plug them directly into the Netgear, whereas with the airport you'd need to add your own hub/switch. For the average home user on a 100Mbps network, the difference in performance between a hub and switch is minimal, esp if you'll primarily be accessing the internet (100Mbps network accessing a 1.5Mpbs cable modem, as you can see, plenty of bandwidth available). That being said, switches are almost as cheap as hubs (sometimes cheaper depending on model, etc) so you might as well buy the switch as it offers a bit more security.

Your actual range will depend on a lot of factors, the only way to really know is to try it. Some wap's make it easy to add an external antenna to slightly extend the range if you aren't getting a good signal. As an example, my neighbor gets almost as good a signal in his house with his Sony Vaio and Linksys card on my wap (Netgear) as I do in my own house with my Pismo w/Airport card. AAMOF, I lose the signal about half way to his house :( With an Enterasys card in my Pismo, the range is much better. And with an Enterasys WAP the range is even better. People report lessened range if 2.4ghz phones are used nearby, others don't, depending on where their computers/waps are relative to their phones. Again, you can't effectively generalize, set up the WAP in a central point (to both houses) and see what type of signal you get.

To make your PM act as a file server, simply go to the sharing section in System Preferences and turn on personal sharing. You don't need Filemaker unless you have an app that actually uses it.
 
Allright thank you all! :

I need :

- NetGear MR314
- 3 Wireless network NIC's

Didn;t know that Airport NIC could connect to a normal wap.
Thanks
 
Originally posted by Muhneer
Allright thank you all! :

I need :

- NetGear MR314
- 3 Wireless network NIC's

Didn;t know that Airport NIC could connect to a normal wap.
Thanks
Click to expand...

The Airport cards will work with any 802.11b compliant WAPs (that includes 802.11g because they both operate on 2.4GHz and "g" is backwards compatible with "b").

When it comes to central a file sharing system, setup depends on what OS you are running first of all, i.e. OSX, OS9, YDL (Yellow Dog Linux, the Red Hat of PPC [big fan!]). Now I have never used AFP before, because I always figured it is far better to be compliant with all OS's (i.e. Windows) so I go with SMB. It would be easier to connect your bosses friends laptop and jump onto a SMB share compared to an AFP (correct me if I'm wrong). Using SMB would also allow for Linux users (if that happens) as well.

Either way I don't suggest FTP as your file sharing protocol. First of all you can't user Finder to mount it and write (to my understanding) to it. So right there you have enough reasons not to use FTP incase you were thinking about it :).

Just so I know next time the PowerMac will be wired correct?
For now I'm guessing that it is otherwise you are going to see some nice 10Mb (that's megabit) file transfers :(.

blah blah blah, hope I didn't waste your time :)

L8r,
\\\\ bootleg
 
I use a Netgear wireless ADSL modem/router to connect to the internet, my imac, 2 ibooks, Ti Powerbook and a Windows Xp box all have airport cards (Belkin USB wireless adapter for the PC). They all connect together and share the internet with no prblems at all.
I do not know if they would work through walls into my neigbours house though!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top