Can I SSH or FTP w/o an IP address?

homer

homer

Safety Inspector
I've got a PC (Windows/Linux) and a Mac connected via crossover cable, and I can mount the Windows shares just fine from the Mac. However, I'd like to be able to SSH or FTP to the Mac from the PC, but my Mac doesn't display an IP address before I get online (56K modem). Once I've been online, I see the IP address just fine, and I can SSH or FTP as I desire. But I'd like to be able to SSH or FTP without using an IP address. Is this possible in my little configuration?

thanks!
 
Ah, you have hit upon the demon called 'multihoming' in OS X. This feature allows you to configure TCP/IP, Appletalk, etc. for EACH network interface in your Mac.

For example, your 56k modem is one, and is configured just fine. You also have an ethernet interface, which needs to be configured seperately, and is treated like an entirely different connection from the 56k modem. So you can configure your Ethernet to have any IP you wish, and it will not affect your ability to get online.

This is what you need to do:

Enter the Network Preference Pane.
Select 'Ethernet' or something like that from the 'Show' Pop-up Menu.
Enter in a manual IP into the IP field (after telling it you want to configure it manually). I suggest something like 10.0.0.x, and set a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

Do the same with the PC, configuring the TCP/IP interface to use a different 10.0.0.x IP address, and the subnet mask 255.255.255.0

DNS and Router IPs don't matter, you don't have any on this cross-over cable ethernet network.

Then, from the Mac/PC, ssh or sftp to the IP that you gave the other.
Example: Mac = 10.0.0.1, PC = 10.0.0.2

Mac -> PC, you enter: 10.0.0.2 as the IP, PC -> Mac, you enter: 10.0.0.1 as the IP.

I can't quite remember how to properly setup the PC with a manual IP, it has been awhile since I configured it.

If you have any other questions, post em here.
 
AWESOME! I got it to work just as you suggested. Thanks for the help!

Now if only you could solve my Windows woes (the simple process of installing a second hard drive in a Windows machine, booting it, then removing the second drive pretty much hosed Windows--good gracious).

But that's another story, and shall be told another time.

Thanks again.

Homer

PS. God bless Apple and the Mac OS. :p
 
I do have another question, though. This one is for my brother. He lives in a house with several other people, and they have cable modem acess--also got a router. He has the only Mac in the house (in part because I'm a zealous Mac evangelist). The Windoze users are able to share files with each other, and I think my brother can access their shares too, but would it be possible to do a similar thing (multihoming, or whatever), to set a static IP address, that they could FTP to his G4? I think he gets a different IP address dished out to him occasionally by his ISP. Any thoughts based on the limited information I've provided? Thanks!
 
If everyone is using the same router, then the router is dishing out the IPs, not the ISP. The router gains the IP dished out by the ISP, and keeps a set of IPs used for local machines. Local networks (private networks) are allowed to use the following IPs:

192.168.x.x
10.x.x.x (Not certain on the mask)
172.x.x.x (Not 100% certain on the mask here either)

So, depending on the router configuration, you CAN use a static IP and still get online, and be visible from other machines. Our house is filled with 4 machines, and a PC card inside one of those 4. We give internal static IPs to these '5' machines, and anyone who comes over and wants to check something out using the wireless capability of the router can just grab a dynamic IP from the router and get online, and not waste an IP indefinitely.

Your brother would have to check out how the router is configured before picking an IP for static use (and pick one that is not part of the pool the router will dish out, but is still on the same subnet).
 
Youch. Thanks for the info. I'll forward it on to him. Unfortunately I'm 700 miles away from him, so I can't help him configure stuff (or screw it up, as the case may be). But he'll get the information. . . .

homer
 
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