When I buy my mac, after the expo, I still plan to keep the pc to run my pc programs. I want them to be networked and both have internet access. My cabel modem has both a ethernet and usb port to connect to the computer. My idea was, run an ethernet cabel from pc to mac, run a usb cabel from modem to mac, then have the mac share the internet with the pc. Would this work, or would I need a router/hub?
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Strange network idea
- Thread starter blvdeast
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tjwett
macrumors 68000
this unfortunately will not work. if you have the ethernet connected, it disables the USB, and vice versa. plus the architecture of the modem will not allow the signal to be split directly from it like that. it needs a router to split the signal and assign different IP addresses and such. i tried this when i first got cable access and later found out it is impossible.
I believe your best bet would be to get a router/switch.
However in theory - depending on which version of Windows you are running on the PC, you could install a second NIC card into the PC, and connect the Powerbook to the PC, and the PC to the cable modem with the second NIC. Then in Windows TCP/IP properties, allow TCP/IP forwarding. This would basically turn your PC into a router. This would probably cost more, and not be as reliable as a router from netgear,linksys, etc.
Also, I believe that anytime you connect two PC's together (or a Mac and a PC) you need to use a crossover cable, and not a straight through cable.
However in theory - depending on which version of Windows you are running on the PC, you could install a second NIC card into the PC, and connect the Powerbook to the PC, and the PC to the cable modem with the second NIC. Then in Windows TCP/IP properties, allow TCP/IP forwarding. This would basically turn your PC into a router. This would probably cost more, and not be as reliable as a router from netgear,linksys, etc.
Also, I believe that anytime you connect two PC's together (or a Mac and a PC) you need to use a crossover cable, and not a straight through cable.
mrjamin
macrumors 65816
your idea will work fine. In the last shared house i lived in, there were 5 of us all with computers. I plugged the cable modem into my PC via RJ45 Ethernet, then shared it, and plugged another computer into a hub which the other computers plugged into. It has its downsides, in that all the other computers were dependant on mine being on, so we ended up going for a router.
Not using a router and sharing an internet connection does have its downsides. The 'host' pc (with the internet connected directly to it) didn't share the internet equally; say for example 4 computers (3 on the hub and my pc connected directly) were all download large files, the host computer would split the bandwidth 50/50 with my pc and the hub, so the other 3 computers were only getting ~17% of the bandwidth as opposed to the 25% they should have had. With 2 computers you won't suffer from this.
Routers generally have good firewalls in them, software firewalls are generally not 100% safe.
To summarise: yes, it'll work but a router would be better.
Not using a router and sharing an internet connection does have its downsides. The 'host' pc (with the internet connected directly to it) didn't share the internet equally; say for example 4 computers (3 on the hub and my pc connected directly) were all download large files, the host computer would split the bandwidth 50/50 with my pc and the hub, so the other 3 computers were only getting ~17% of the bandwidth as opposed to the 25% they should have had. With 2 computers you won't suffer from this.
Routers generally have good firewalls in them, software firewalls are generally not 100% safe.
To summarise: yes, it'll work but a router would be better.
bennetsaysargh
macrumors 68020
a hub would be easy and you don't even need to get a wireless one.
one thing though, could you plug modem into your mac, and then use IP over firewire? or is there only a version for mac. and then you would need to have FW on the PC.
one thing though, could you plug modem into your mac, and then use IP over firewire? or is there only a version for mac. and then you would need to have FW on the PC.