Sharing wired internet connection through MacBook Wifi?

[madmaxmedia]

Hi,

It is possible to share a internet connection (ethernet, EVDO, etc.) from your Mac computer to an iPod Touch. This is useful if say you are at work and don't have a wifi network, and don't want to buy a router just to give your Touch a wifi connection.

The steps on the Mac are pretty easy and done through 'Sharing' in System Preferences. I can find the network on my Touch and connect. The problem is when I fire up Safari, I try to load a page and it hangs and never loads. YouTube and iTunes Wifi store don't work either. I've tried various security levels (including none at all), and can't get it to work.

Anyone else try this? I have read of others having similar problems, not sure why.

Thanks,
Steve

[aethelbert]

I've been doing this with my iMac for a few months.

[Lin]

I've been doing this with my iMac for a few months.
Well... how :confused: ;)

[Rhosfelt]

Well... how :confused: ;)

System Prefs>Sharing>Internet

Then "Sharing Your Connection From"; should be "Built In Ethernet"

"To Computers Using"; should be "Airport".

However then go to Airport Options and configure those to your liking. I suggest putting a password on and even renaming the network b/c you are at work and they might not like it, so name it something like "internet" or "default" so they can't pin it on you right away :)

[Lin]

Great thanks, but... does it need the Airport hardware :confused:
Looks like it is possible to connect one Wi-Fi enabled computer (Mac or PC I don't know) and the IPT without extra hardware...

[mkrishnan]

Great thanks, but... does it need the Airport hardware :confused:
Looks like it is possible to connect one Wi-Fi enabled computer (Mac or PC I don't know) and the IPT without extra hardware...

Airport is what Apple calls the WiFi card in your notebook computer. All current Macs except the Mac Pro come with Airport built-in.

As opposed to "base stations," which is how Apple describes routers, such as the Airport Extreme Base Station or the Airport Express.

[Rhosfelt]

Airport is what Apple calls the WiFi card in your notebook computer. All current Macs except the Mac Pro come with Airport built-in.

As opposed to "base stations," which is how Apple describes routers, such as the Airport Extreme Base Station or the Airport Express.

In other words no, you are just making your computer a router.

[madmaxmedia]

In other words no, you are just making your computer a router.

Exactly. So its good if you have a wired connection for your Mac, but don't have a wireless network. You're just letting wireless devices like the Touch piggyback onto your Mac's wired internet connection.

I know it should work, but I just can't get any actual data transferred after the connection.

[Rhosfelt]

Exactly. So its good if you have a wired connection for your Mac, but don't have a wireless network. You're just letting wireless devices like the Touch piggyback onto your Mac's wired internet connection.

I know it should work, but I just can't get any actual data transferred after the connection.

that might depend on how you are connected. My friend at Pitt is having trouble going from an old powermac to a new MBP wired to wired... I couldn't figure it out but it might have something to do with 802.1x is that your security/connection?

[madmaxmedia]

I've tried everything from no security at all (just to try it), to 40 and 128 bit WEP. Same results every time- my Touch connects, but no data.

I'm wondering if it could possibly be due to a firewall in my office network or something like that.

[Hls811]

I've tried everything from no security at all (just to try it), to 40 and 128 bit WEP. Same results every time- my Touch connects, but no data.

I'm wondering if it could possibly be due to a firewall in my office network or something like that.


Can you connect and get data from the laptop? If you are getting internet access on there then it can't be the office network/firewall limiting it.. If you're not getting access on your laptop then thats probably it.

You can try entering your proxy info on your laptop.

[DenniZ]

Airport is what Apple calls the WiFi card in your notebook computer. All current Macs except the Mac Pro come with Airport built-in.

MacPros do come with airport built in. I have one.

[madmaxmedia]

I am getting internet acccess on my MacBook, so what you say makes sense.

Not sure why I can't share the connection to my Touch...

[mkrishnan]

MacPros do come with airport built in. I have one.

Sorry, I meant as a standard feature (as opposed to an option). All current Mac Minis, Macbooks, MBPs, and iMacs have Airport. Not all Mac Pros have Airport. Not that it's really particularly relevant to anything.

[psychofreak]

MacPros do come with airport built in. I have one.

You can choose a MP without Airport though...

http://kumquat.quickshareit.com/share/picture19f7f6.png

[DenniZ]

Sorry, I meant as a standard feature (as opposed to an option). All current Mac Minis, Macbooks, MBPs, and iMacs have Airport. Not all Mac Pros have Airport. Not that it's really particularly relevant to anything.

hmm weird never knew it didnt have to come with it, although it helps alot tho :P ....

good thing is that all macs have the gigabit ethernet connections :P fastest way to get data from place to place.

anyways i'l try sharing my macbook internet (as soon as i find a network cable) to my ipod touch.

[Lin]

MacPros do come with airport built in. I have one.
It is optional, at least here in Europe, along with Bluetooth...

[madmaxmedia]

I found by manually picking a channel on my MacBook, I can get intermittent internet access on my iPod Touch.

I might mess around with the difference channels and see if any work better than the others. Not sure why this works, but no matter...

[seanm924]

Hi,

It is possible to share a internet connection (ethernet, EVDO, etc.) from your Mac computer to an iPod Touch. This is useful if say you are at work and don't have a wifi network, and don't want to buy a router just to give your Touch a wifi connection.

The steps on the Mac are pretty easy and done through 'Sharing' in System Preferences. I can find the network on my Touch and connect. The problem is when I fire up Safari, I try to load a page and it hangs and never loads. YouTube and iTunes Wifi store don't work either. I've tried various security levels (including none at all), and can't get it to work.

Anyone else try this? I have read of others having similar problems, not sure why.

Thanks,
Steve

Dude, if you got a Macbook sitting right there, then why use it to get wifi on the touch? Just use the Macbook. It'll be faster seeing how it has a normal sized screen.

[madmaxmedia]

Dude, if you got a Macbook sitting right there, then why use it to get wifi on the touch? Just use the Macbook. It'll be faster seeing how it has a normal sized screen.

Well, yeah, if I'm at my desk... ;)

I don't need this to work, just curious why it doesn't. If I'm eating lunch elsewhere and want to quickly hit my email or something, it would be nice to be able to do so.

So yeah, you're right- I wouldn't even pay $20 for a cheap wireless router to get wifi. But since the MacBook comes with the capability, I wanted to try to get it to work.

[Schnebar]

Wow I had no idea you could do this.

We just got an airport express for our completely wired house. It only is for my iTouch and my dads macbook.

But anywhere in the house is near other macs and we could have just shared the internet connection. Maybe ill move the airport by the back door so we can use them outside.

I wonder if my iMac sends a stronger signal than the express?

[madmaxmedia]

I'd imagine the Express might actually be stronger, since it is expressedly designed to be a wifi router.

But you can test and post back with results. ;)

It's a pretty neat feature I have to say.

[vanmacguy]

Hi,

It is possible to share a internet connection (ethernet, EVDO, etc.) from your Mac computer to an iPod Touch. This is useful if say you are at work and don't have a wifi network, and don't want to buy a router just to give your Touch a wifi connection.

The steps on the Mac are pretty easy and done through 'Sharing' in System Preferences. I can find the network on my Touch and connect. The problem is when I fire up Safari, I try to load a page and it hangs and never loads. YouTube and iTunes Wifi store don't work either. I've tried various security levels (including none at all), and can't get it to work.

Anyone else try this? I have read of others having similar problems, not sure why.

Thanks,
Steve

I'm having the exact same problem with sharing my Internet from my MacBook Pro to my iPhone. It just doesn't work.

The problem is that iPhone gets a good strong signal, but it gets no IP information. I'm using this at work on a corporate network and iPhone doesn't get IP or gateway or Nameserver or router information from DHCP. My MacBook gets it fine, so something is missing.

Without bugging my network admin and possibly being told to stop trying, it just doesn't work.

If those that post their success could let us know what their network settings are, that would be useful.

Cheers.

[Stang68]

I have tried this for many hours using my MacBook Pro connected to ethernet cable, but I have had no success. I think this is because the ethernet is still coming from a network that is 802.1X and the touch cant get that. I might be wrong, but i think that is the problem.

[madmaxmedia]

It's weird, I'll intermittently get a page to load, but then it doesn't work after that. My Touch is connected the whole time with a supposedly good connection, but no data transfer.

The problem is that iPhone gets a good strong signal, but it gets no IP information. I'm using this at work on a corporate network and iPhone doesn't get IP or gateway or Nameserver or router information from DHCP. My MacBook gets it fine, so something is missing.

I don't think it's supposed to get anything from your main network. Your Mac basically creates its own separate network with different IP #'s. When I check my Touch, it lists the IP address as 10.X.X.X (don't remember the exact numbers), with a 10.X.X.X gateway address (I assume is the Mac.)

[vanmacguy]

It's weird, I'll intermittently get a page to load, but then it doesn't work after that. My Touch is connected the whole time with a supposedly good connection, but no data transfer.



I don't think it's supposed to get anything from your main network. Your Mac basically creates its own separate network with different IP #'s. When I check my Touch, it lists the IP address as 10.X.X.X (don't remember the exact numbers), with a 10.X.X.X gateway address (I assume is the Mac.)

Ok, I got it to work.

First download IPNetShareX from www.sustworks.com, it's free but you need to register for a key.

These are the settings I used, first on the Mac:

System Preferences, Network, note the Subnet Mask and the Router IP addresses
System Preferences, Sharing, Internet tab, Share your connection from: Built-In Ethernet, To computers using: Airport
System Preferences, Sharing: Click Start
IPNetShareX, Subnet Mask: The address you noted above, Router Address: The address you noted from above, Preserve Ports: Checked, Use Sockets: Checked, Create Aliasing Log, Checked, Deny Incoming Requests: Checked, External Network Interface: Airport, Internal Network Interface: Built In Ethernet, Dynamic IP Binding: Checked, Local Caching: Checked, everything else unchecked.
IPNetShareX: Click Start Internet Sharing

I don't know if the settings I specified in IPNetShareX make any difference but these settings worked for me.

iPhone: Select your wireless network (probably your Computer name) and select DHCP tab and Select Renew Lease.

Done! Works great for me anyway.

Cheers.

[madmaxmedia]

Thanks for the post. Unofortunately it didn't work, and borked my MacBook's connection until I renewed its lease. :p

After you renewed the DHCP lease on your Touch, what IP address did you get? A regular one like your wired network, or one of those 10.x.x.x addresses?

Thanks

[vanmacguy]

Thanks for the post. Unofortunately it didn't work, and borked my MacBook's connection until I renewed its lease. :p

After you renewed the DHCP lease on your Touch, what IP address did you get? A regular one like your wired network, or one of those 10.x.x.x addresses?

Thanks

Yeah, it worked just great for me yesterday. Did the same thing today and had the same problem as you. I lost network on the MBP. Strange

I got a 10.6 address yesterday.

I'm using an iPhone not a touch.

Cheers.

[madmaxmedia]

I just updated to 1.1.2, and Internet sharing works better than before (which was basically not at all.)

Now sometimes pages load very fast, other times it will sit there and hang for awhile before loading. I find that if I hit stop, then re-load or hit a link again, the page will often then come up very quickly.

It seems at least close to usable now, but I just set it up and haven't used it much yet.

[urrl78]

When I tried 1.1.2 there was no effect. I just went back to 1.1.1 and reinstalled all of my Jailbreak.

My story is similar to you guys; on rare occasions my MBP would allow effortless surfing of my iPT using WIFI signal via Sprint Expresscard. Most of the time though it would load part way but usually not at all in OSX.

I did some research and discovered the rare time when it worked my God daughters iPT worked too, which lead me to believe the fault was in the MBP signal.

Today the idea came to me to connect the MPB via ethernet cable to the Powerbook I have, and see if the Powerbooks signal would do any better.
Sure enough, so far the iPT loves the Powerbook's signal and has no problems.

So looks like the iPT is a bit choosey when it comes to types of signals. I've tried all the tricks I know with the MBP and have given up, realizing a few other PC laptops I have had a bit of a problem inexplicably with the MBP's Wifi signal. I think my next step would be to try the Expresscard in a MBP at an Apple Store and see if it is my MBP which is at fault, or if all MBP's do this. Remember; sometimes my MBP conects with the iPT for no reason at all and works perfectly. I recorded all settings and put it to sleep and shut the iPT off. I then woke up the MBP and turned on the iPT and NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. But once I shut down the MBP and rebooted there was no way to connect again. How could critical settings change during a simple reboot? I did notice however the IP address changes each time I reboot the MBP. Is this normal and why???

[madmaxmedia]

Upon further testing, internet sharing is still extremely spotty with my Touch and MacBook. It's a little better than before I guess, which is still not much.

Very interesting about the results with the PB. I wonder what is going on?

[urrl78]

Update:
Now I have configured Windows XP in MBP Bootcamp to have the MBP share its Expresscard signal thru Ethernet to the Powerbook. I set the Powerbook to Wifi sharing and yes! It works fine!

Evidently the Powerbook has something in its Wifi the MBP does not seem to have. Indeed Madmaxmedia, what could it be?

[reckless_0001]

Madmaxmedia, I'm having the exact same issue right now. Glad to know it's not just me. Downloading the 1.1.2 update as I type. Sharing via MBP and noticed it works for a second when you set a static channel. Hope it works better. :rolleyes:

[tennez]

I have jailbreak 2 and a macbook and the connections works great!!
Didnt know about this either!!

Thanks!

[grandeabc]

Finally I found a way to fix this trouble.
Note: before, be sure to go to the System Preferences/Sharing and to have already selected "WEB SHARING" and "INTERNET SHARING" with status ON.

1 -
Now, proceed:
Go to System Preferences/Network
Click on Airpot (left menu)
Turn Airport ON (it must be ON)
On the "Network Name" selection, -wait 5 seconds- choose exactly the name of the connection you're already sharing.
Go to your Touch and access Settings\Wi-Fi\ and choose your connection.
Note : This works fine, and I'm connecting now at the same time 1 windows PC, 2 iPods Touch, and a MYLO from Sony.

If the above solution doesn't work for you, you can still try this:
2 -
Go to System Preferences/Network
Click on Airpot (left menu)
Turn Airport ON (it must be ON)
On the "Network Name" selection, select 'Create Network' and give a name (it can be the same name as your sharing connection's name, or even another name)
Now, note that the airport icon changes from an arrow to a "radio" icon
Go to your Touch and access Settings\Wi-Fi\ and choose this connection you've created right now.
This method works with touch and PC's, but Mylo from Sony do not recognize the signal.

Sure, it works great!
Sorry by my bad english, Good luck!

[szesam]

Macs have a built in feature to share internet connection via Wifi

Article can be found at:
http://app-cloud.blogspot.com/2011/01/sharing-your-internet-connection-via-wi_24.html

[szesam]

Macs have a built in feature to share internet connection via Wifi

Article can be found at:
http://app-cloud.blogspot.com/2011/01/sharing-your-internet-connection-via-wi_24.html