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Firewire network

N

nintendo1138

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2004
13
0
Okay guys, I remember reading in my Youth(ha ha) that Firewire could be used to build networks...has anyone actually done this? Can I fileshare between a Mac and PC using just a firewire cable? I'm running a OS 10.3.3 Mac G3 and a Windows 2000PC and I would love to get a Firewire link going...Thanks.
:)
 
It does work, I've done it between my Mac and XP box before. It's pretty fast, but if you can just cross connect it with ethernet, that could be faster and easier to setup. The one thing is that the FireWire link acts like a router, for example:

My Mac is wireless to my Netgear router, so it has an IP of 192.168.0.3 on Airport. When I set it up to create a FireWire network, it becomes 192.168.3.1 because it is now the router. And the XP box becomes something like 192.168.3.2. So now, my laptop (192.168.0.5) can't see my XP box because it's buried behind the Mac. Unless there's a Network Bridge quasi-Windows option I don't know about, then anything beyond one FireWire link would continually bury those computers further and further down the line. Does that make sense?

It also depends if Windows 2000 has FireWire network drivers, I'm not sure if it does or not. If not, Ethernet might be faster.

cpjakes
 
Yeah, I'm going to second the ethernet. First of all, I don't think Windows 2000 offers IP over Firewire. You're probably going to need XP for that. Secondly, even though Firewire is technically four times faster than a 100Mb ethernet connection, you wouldn't even saturate the bandwidth of ethernet doing simple file transfers. It just doesn't seem worth the hassle, although I suppose there is a "cool" factor of using Firewire.
 
IP over FireWire is no harder than Ethernet - when supported

No, I don't think that Win2K supports IP over FireWire naturally, as I remember seeing that first in WinXP. However, setting up IP/FW is no harder than setting up Ethernet, and for the two computer case can be faster/easier than ethernet.

If you are just setting up two machines for file transfer, you should be able to get away with just the default settings (DHCP on Mac OS X, or the equivalent option to obtain an IP automatically on Windows, same thing different words). You will have to browse for the machines, and it may not show immediately, but it is no hassle.

Slightly harder is using a static IP address on both machines. Assuming you know how to do this, you just give them both an arbitrary IP address (I usually use 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 or something similar). Set the Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0. Since your not passing internet around, you don't need to set anything else. Now you can use IP services without waiting or having to determine what the IP address of either machine is.

If you want to actually use firewire to share an internet connection, then you need to visit the Sharing pref pane, Internet Tab or on Windows to right click on a network connection and Bridge the connection (follow the wizard, I don't remember it very well). Either way it will setup the machine to serve IP addresses to other connected machines and allow those machines to access the internet.

As for file transfers, if your sending across 10K text files, you really will never saturate the connection bandwidth, but then you wouldn't with 10MBps Ethernet either so that issue is kinda moot. It's when you get to sending music or video that you will see the improvement that you get with FW over 100MBps Ethernet. Obviously 1GB Ethernet will trump this, but that is still relatively rare on the PC side. Finder copies tend to make very good use of the bandwidth available, even for transfers of lots of small files (it can usually do a good job of fully utilizing the bandwidth available from the slowest device).
 
Great guys, that helps alot....too bad my firewire cable is too short...and my firewire card seems to hate the idea of networking; crossover cable it is...
 
cpjakes said:
And you don't even need a crossover cable - the Mac will figure it out. :D
Click to expand...

That depends on the model you have. All current portable models will figure it out, and the PowerMacs will figure it out, but it's a bit more spotty on if an iMac or eMac will (I don't remember specific models). So make sure you check your user manual before you use a straight-through (standard) cable to hook up two machines.
 
What about Internet sharing?

Hello world! I was wondering if is possible to share my DSL connection like this:

Ethernet to the DSL modem and Firewire going between 2 macs (eMac-iBook G4) at the same time surfing in Internet and sharing folders...

Any detailed help? Pls! Thx!
 
AmigoMac said:
Hello world! I was wondering if is possible to share my DSL connection like this:

Ethernet to the DSL modem and Firewire going between 2 macs (eMac-iBook G4) at the same time surfing in Internet and sharing folders...

Any detailed help? Pls! Thx!
Click to expand...

That will work, no problem. All you need to do is go to System Preferences - Sharing on your eMac and turn on Internet Sharing on your FireWire port. I believe you have to enable FireWire as a network device under System Preferences - Network - Network Port Configurations. Then on your iBook, go to System Preferences - Network and enable FireWire as a network device and it should obtain an IP from the eMac. In that case, your eMac always needs to be on for your iBook to be able to connect.

A cooler way to do it, especially with a laptop, is to do it through Airport, which you'll need the cards for, but then you can be wireless. Configuration is the same, just substitute Airport where FireWire is above, and it'll work the same.

cpjakes
 
Thx!

cpjakes said:
That will work, no problem. All you need to do is go to System Preferences - Sharing on your eMac and turn on Internet Sharing on your FireWire port. I believe you have to enable FireWire as a network device under System Preferences - Network - Network Port Configurations. Then on your iBook, go to System Preferences - Network and enable FireWire as a network device and it should obtain an IP from the eMac. In that case, your eMac always needs to be on for your iBook to be able to connect.

A cooler way to do it, especially with a laptop, is to do it through Airport, which you'll need the cards for, but then you can be wireless. Configuration is the same, just substitute Airport where FireWire is above, and it'll work the same.

cpjakes
Click to expand...

I'll try it later and will let you know, Now is pretty late (20:00) and my son has to sleep first...

I'll give it a try...

BTW, I have AE in my iBook but not in the eMac, will the AEBS work plugging the eMac in the base station and having the iBook wireless, I read the AEBS has 1 ethernet port. I'm a newbie in wireless mac topics...
 
AmigoMac said:
I'll try it later and will let you know, Now is pretty late (20:00) and my son has to sleep first...

I'll give it a try...

BTW, I have AE in my iBook but not in the eMac, will the AEBS work plugging the eMac in the base station and having the iBook wireless, I read the AEBS has 1 ethernet port. I'm a newbie in wireless mac topics...
Click to expand...

The AEBS has two ports - one for DSL/Cable and the other for your local connection. You can do exactly as you say, plug the eMac in and run the iBook wirelessly. The AEBS is more expensive than getting another AE card for the eMac, but the AEBS will be on all the time and probably be more reliable.

cpjakes
 
OK!

I want to give the airport a try! thx for the advice, meanwhile I'll follow it , next week I'll order the AEBS ... :)
 
Be aware that the AEBS is significantly more expensive than third party options, like Netgear, dlink, and linksys. The AEBS will probably give you less hassle as your main system(s) are Apple, but the cost difference is considerable. Check the forums for wireless 802.11g routers, most will provide wireless access with 4 wired ports for local computers. That way, if you want to plug in the iBook, you can do that and get faster transfer rates than with wireless, but for most small file sharing (AAC/MP3 and MS Office documents, you'll be fine. If you start transferring video or uncompressed audio, it'd be nice to plug in. But you could do that with FireWire too..

Sorry for all the options, there's a lot to choose from...

cpjakes
 
What about rendevouz?

I've seen the "Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router" and sure has a nice price, but will rendevouz programs work with/through it?

Thx in advance!
 
AmigoMac said:
I've seen the "Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router" and sure has a nice price, but will rendevouz programs work with/through it?

Thx in advance!
Click to expand...

I don't know about the Linksys, but my Netgear works fine with Rendezvous apps, like iTunes, iChat, etc. I can't imagine that the other ones won't. All of that stuff just looks for a local network, which is what's created by a wireless/wired router.

As I said, it's cost and ease of use that make the AEBS look good, and the price that makes the others look good.

cpjakes
 
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