networking 2 macs with X for dummies

boi

boi

official breaker of macs.
okay, i've got two macs, both running X.1.2, two cross-over cables and a hub. how do i get files from one mac to the other? i turned appletalk on on both of them, and the other computer shows up under go-> server, but it asks for login/pass. i type in the user/pass of that computer, no good. then i try every user/pass i know, no good.

what, step by step, do i do to transfer files from one mac to the other? yeesh. i could do this in 9...

=- boi.
 
haha! did i say crossover? i meant ethernet. they sound the same, you know.

... i think i mean ethernet.

anyway, the hub is for printers, cable modem and two computers. the cable modem provides only 1 ip at a time, so mac1 gets the cable modem dhcp server ip, and mac2 gets some random 128 ip generated (i guess) by the hub (?).
now when i turn appletalk on both of them, only mac2 shows up on the appletalk network. mac1 won't show up.

bustawustadeelio? i thought this was supposed to be easy.

=- boi.
 
alright, i'm just trying to get files from one mac to another, and i've made a little headway (a little).

i hook both macs up to the hub with my ethernet cords. great.
i turn appletalk on both. great.
each shows up under connect to-> appletalk. great.
when i try and log into either one from either one, i get "Login failed: Unknown user, incorrect password, or log on is disabled." great.
let's say mac2 is trying to log onto mac1. from mac2 i typed in the login/pw i type in when i boot up mac1. no luck. so i create a guest user on mac1. guest/guest. simple. no good. so i try mac1 logging into mac2. same deal.

hmm...

Oo boi o.
 
i can't think of anything... umm... sharity is installed on one of the macs, but that's about it.
 
File Sharing (server-side) on Mac OS X is TCP only. It no longer uses apple talk, as the file sharing in OS9 does. Yes, OS X clients can use apple talk, but the computer serving up the files must go over TCP/IP.

I believe the random ip addresses are your problem. You see, unless the other computer has an address under the same subnet ip address as the first computer, the router inside your cable modem will attempt to contact an external computer, which is unlikely to be yours.

I propose a test, to see if this really is the case.

Connect both macs to the hub. Disconnect your cable modem. (you could also run a true cross-over cable between the macs and avoid the hub all together, but it sounds like your hub isn't the issue here.)

Assign, in the network panel of the SystemPreferences the following IP addresses to each macintosh (don't use DHCP, select manual):

Mac1: 90.0.0.1
Mac2: 90.0.0.2
Subnet (same for both): 255.255.255.0
Leave the DNS information blank

Do something to make the new information take effect (ie, quit the system preferences and wait 5 mins. UNIX geeks can restart the network via the command line).

Now, make sure file sharing is enabled (which you have undoubtably done several times in the last week ;-) ).

You should now be able to effectively transfer files bi-directionally between the two computers.

To test network functionality, open up the terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).

Type:
ping 90.0.0.1
or
ping 90.0.0.2
(depends on which computer you are at, of course. Allways ping the *other* computer's address).

Press controll-c to stop the pinging.

You see, when you had those rather different ip addresses,
ping rather-random-ipaddress
would return errors like "No route to host" or possibly actually ping some web site in south america.

If my above idea works, let me know, because there is a way we can assign two ip address to each macintosh, one for the file sharing, and one for your network connection.

As has already been stated, a router or some type of firewall would greatly simplify things.

Please post if this works (and if it doesn't).
 
worked like a charm! i've already set up "locations" for my cable modem and file sharing, so i'm workin' fine!
thanks a ton!

Oo boi o.
 
hey, I just found a much easier way to do this:
open up the system preferences.

click 'network'

Select 'AppleTalk'

check the 'make apple talk active'.

I think this will allow you to share your mac to older sys7 macs as well as anything using the same hub as you. Give it a shot, this could save you the trouble of disconnecting from the internet to share files.
 
kilowatt:
this is what i initially tried, but it didn't work. it kept asking for my login/password, and would swear up and down that it was incorrect. :mad:
 
Having a hub coming off of your cable modem if your cable modem isn't made to deal with such ... is bad karma. I won't go into details here, but you should only have one thing using IP on that hub in the configuration you describe. Even then, the karma is a little salty. Ideal would be a separate ethernet card for the computer that sees the cable modem, and keep the hub traffic from ever being heard by the cable modem. This aside, here's my explanation of what happenned here.

Appletalk is used for browsing and possibly sharing now. But the default behaviour is to use IP if both machines have valid IP addresses. If you anly use one machine with IP, and the others should only have Appletalk, try and make it so. Then maybe they won't think that an IP connection is possible and won't attempt to authenticate and connect via IP.

If they find each other via appletalk and think that an IP connection is possible, then auth and connection will occur over IP. If you fake the IP stuff and it doesn't actually work, then you have confused X beyond its usefulness, and it won't share. They tell each other their IP addresses over appletalk.

Don't know if this helps you solve any problems, or reach zen enlightenment, but knowledge is usually a good thing.
 
you're psychic.

my cable modem shut off today. upon calling roadrunner, they informed me that they shut me down because i assigned static ips to my computers for file sharing. poop.
theed: let's say there's no cable modem involved-- just two computers and a hub. then what? TCP/IP, right?


thanks.
Oo boi o.
 
2 or more machines on a hub will communicate via IP if they have IP's within the same subnet. Explicitly: 192.168.50.1 through 192.168.50.254 will all talk directly to each other if their subnet is 255.255.255.0.

I could explain this easier in person with a whiteboard, but ... never use the full or empty address, 0 or 255, and you have 1 to 254 inside any subnet that leaves the last 255 as the host address.

192.168.50.1 when asked to talk to 192.168.50.254 will check his subnet mask, and say hey, he's local, I'll just yell for him. So then the two machines find each other by yelling, and that's fine on a hub or a switch. If they can't find each other by yelling, meaning they will be sending to an IP outside their subnet, then you need a router setup.

Appletalk also communicates by yelling, but it assigns default numbers that will talk to one another. So 2 machines using appletalk on a hub will yell and find each other. For freaky implementation specific reasons, TCP/IP communication is faster than Appletalk so giving the two machines IP addresses on the same subnet will allow them to yell, find each other via IP, and talk at high speed.

For reference, see also kilowatt's previous posts, and grab a book on TCP/IP or networking from O'reilly. You'll learn much, and your starting salary should be minimum $35k/yr if you can thoroughly understand what I just told you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top