Beginners question about Mac/Windows networking

[sgmiller]

Hi...I am a long time computer user but relatively new to the MacOS and pretty much a beginner when it comes to networking. I just installed a wireless router for my Mac and PC which is running fine (USB LAN stick for the PC). I have been trying to network the Mac and PC and I have gotten so far as to being able to see my shared PC folders with the Mac no problem.

However, the network seems to be using the wireless link where as I want to do this with the ethernet cable I installed between the Mac and the PC for reasons of speed. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to make a network connection with the eternet cable and for the network to use this link for filesharing. Is this possible and how do I do it?

I suspect that the problem might be that I don't understand how to assign an IP address for the built-in Ethernet card which normally comes from the Router or from PPPoE in the case of an internet connection.

 

[varmit]

Hi...I am a long time computer user but relatively new to the MacOS and pretty much a beginner when it comes to networking. I just installed a wireless router for my Mac and PC which is running fine (USB LAN stick for the PC). I have been trying to network the Mac and PC and I have gotten so far as to being able to see my shared PC folders with the Mac no problem.

However, the network seems to be using the wireless link where as I want to do this with the ethernet cable I installed between the Mac and the PC for reasons of speed. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to make a network connection with the eternet cable and for the network to use this link for filesharing. Is this possible and how do I do it?

I suspect that the problem might be that I don't understand how to assign an IP address for the built-in Ethernet card which normally comes from the Router or from PPPoE in the case of an internet connection.

From what I hear you have a network cable connecting the Mac and PC together directly. But both the Mac and PC are connected to a wireless router, probably for Internet access and what not. And you are using the normal windows browsing for shares you are going though the router which is normal since the PC and Mac only see a good network connection over the wireless. The ethernet ports of the PC and Mac are probably getting IP Addresses of 169.XXX.XXX.XXX, which is used to indicate that there is a network problem. Easiest way is to find out what the IP address is on the NIC card of the PC, most likely at 169 address, is to bring up a dos prompt and type in "ipconfig /all", without the qoutes. Then look for the ethernet card that is connecting the two computers and get the IP address, again, most likely a 169 address. Then on the Mac do a Apple-K in the Finder to bring up the Connect to Server and use the 169 IP address so that the Apple talks to the PC over the network card that are directly connecting eachother.

 

[sgmiller]

Thanks for the help

Actually, I have gotten it all straightened out. I was only able to connect from the Mac to the PC and not the other way around so a light came on in my head and said "maybe you need the other type of cable (crossover)" So I tried that and, very strangely, I was able to connect both ways but only over the WLAN. So I went back to my original thought and tried assigning and IP address manually to the Mac ethernet card. Using a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx address did the trick and now I have bidirectional communication over the ethernet ports.

There are still a couple of things I don't understand the biggest of which is why using a crossover cable seemed to activate the bidirectional link over the WLAN. Nothing I did until then let me get to the Mac from the PC until I installed the cable. Also, from doing a bit of reading, I understand that the 169.xxx.xxx.xxx address is a kind of default when there is no router or any other DHCP to assign an address. So, was I correct then to do this manually or am I missing something here?

Anyway, thanks for the help. I learned alot and found out about Sharepoints which I am using to lets me access my external Firewire drive from my PC even though it is connected to the Mac. That way I can use the FW as a "media server" since I am using the PC basically to play media files and games.

Thanks again.

 

[sgmiller]

Ok, for the record, I pretty much understand the whole thing:

169.xxx.xxx.xxx addresses are indeed an IP that gets assigned in the absence of a DHCP assigned IP. Its usually a sign of a network problem,, but in my case, its actually good because it lets me establish a "local link" between the Mac and the PC which, as I understand it, is pretty much unacessible to the outside world.

So, somehow I think I stumbled upon the perfect solution for my setup. The WLAN router is assigning IP's to the Mac and PC so I can use the Internet on either one regardless if the other is switched on and with no messy cable strung across the room from where the router is. At the same time, I have a secure "local link" network established between the PC and Mac so I can use my external FW drive as a media server to my PC which has the big screen hooked up.

I'm happy.

 

[varmit]

If you want to have some real fun, network the Mac and PC together using Firewire. 😉 If you don't have firewire in your PC, just pic up a firewire 400 or 800 card from your local CompUSA and have some real fun.

 

[sgmiller]

I only have one FW port on the MacBook which is used for my external drive, so how would that work and what would the advantage be exactly since all I am doing with the network is "streaming" video files to my PC? I am getting periodic "stutters" when I do that when the playback freezes for a moment. I was attributing that to "hiccups" in the network but do you think a FW connection would eliminate this phenomenon?

 

[varmit]

I only have one FW port on the MacBook which is used for my external drive, so how would that work and what would the advantage be exactly since all I am doing with the network is "streaming" video files to my PC? I am getting periodic "stutters" when I do that when the playback freezes for a moment. I was attributing that to "hiccups" in the network but do you think a FW connection would eliminate this phenomenon?

The shutters are due to the program you are using on the PC, which isn't doing a good job of buffering the media you are watching. Try VLC on your PC to watch the media and see if the shutters stop.

If you external drive has another firewire port, you can dasiy chain more drives or possibly to your PC onto that drive. I never dasiy chained a computer so I'm only guessing that it would work, but here I have firewire 800 port connected to one drive, then another drive firewired 800 to that drive and I can access both at very high speeds.

 

[sgmiller]

I am already using VLC on the PC. Is there a setting of some kind I can change to deal with this buffer problem?

 

[Eraserhead]

Yes I'd have thought so. With the Mac Version you would go to VLC Menu==>Preferences and then check Advanced.

Then go to Input/Codecs==>Access Modules==>TCP==>Caching Value in ms and change it to a bigger number of milliseconds. (i.e 2000/3000)

Sorry but I don't have a PC to check the settings but they should be similar 😉.

 

[sgmiller]

Hey, thanks for the help...gives me some hope. I was almost considering just routinely copying the files over to the PC which kind of defeats the purpose (a bit) of having the network connection in the first place.

I will try it later and let you know.