After a good 6 hours of work I finally got my old Compaq into shape. (It had something to do with the floppy drive, cause when I removed that, it worked pefectly) Anywho, I'd like to network my eMac and it (Win98SE). Can anyone reccomend a good wireless or wired network setup for a decent price?
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Can someone reccomend any Network hubs?
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You can use virtually any broadband router from companies like D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, etc to connect your PC and Mac to the Internet and each other. I suggest getting a device that is a 4 port switch / router combination. They can be purchased over the Internet, CompUSA, etc.
I'm not aware of a router with a print server built in that will handle printing on both Macs and PCs except for the D-Link. Even then, you have to have a postscript printer for it to work for the Mac. Maybe someone else knows about one of these that work with both Mac and Windows.
To share your printer, I suggest connecting it to your PC and sharing it from there. Then print through your PC from your Mac.
I'm not aware of a router with a print server built in that will handle printing on both Macs and PCs except for the D-Link. Even then, you have to have a postscript printer for it to work for the Mac. Maybe someone else knows about one of these that work with both Mac and Windows.
To share your printer, I suggest connecting it to your PC and sharing it from there. Then print through your PC from your Mac.
You don't need special hardware to do that. Just get the router, as suggested above. Once that's set up, sharing the printer with others on the network can be enabled in System Prefs -> Sharing, under the "Services" tab.
Belkin Hubs can be had for about $24 refurbished, and refurbished Belkin products are always top notch.
EDIT: checked Belkin's site, seems the reburbished hubs are out of stock. I think they're $50 new, but you can get a router for $30. Not quite a hub, but it'll work.
EDIT: checked Belkin's site, seems the reburbished hubs are out of stock. I think they're $50 new, but you can get a router for $30. Not quite a hub, but it'll work.
you don't need a router for the net, hubs are just fine. Routers and hubs are the same, except that routers have like firewalls and stuff built in, hubs don't. But my opinion is that the majority of people don't need firewalls.
If you want to have more than one system share an Internet connection, you need a router, even if you use a computer to perform the routing function (ie Internet connection sharing). The only way to avoid a router is by having multiple IP addresses supplied by the ISP.
If the Mac or PC is going to be used as the router, I go back to my original suggestion - connect the 2 systems with a network cable.
BTW, from the perspective of operation, hubs and routers are not even remotely close, and the firewall function has nothing to do with routing. Hubs allow devices on a local network to communicate, whereas routers allow devices on remote networks to communicate.
If the Mac or PC is going to be used as the router, I go back to my original suggestion - connect the 2 systems with a network cable.
BTW, from the perspective of operation, hubs and routers are not even remotely close, and the firewall function has nothing to do with routing. Hubs allow devices on a local network to communicate, whereas routers allow devices on remote networks to communicate.
So am I going down the wrong road here?
Okay, let's start over. I want to have my PC and Mac share the same DSL-based internet connection. I was planning on getting a hub, hooking the modem to it, then plugging both of the computers into that hub. This won't work, you're saying?
Okay, let's start over. I want to have my PC and Mac share the same DSL-based internet connection. I was planning on getting a hub, hooking the modem to it, then plugging both of the computers into that hub. This won't work, you're saying?
Correct - it will not work. The reason is both computers need and will request an IP address from the ISP. You are only allowed 1 IP address unless you pay for more (assuming your ISP even has that option - many don't).
The router allows you to have more than one computer access the Internet using the 1 IP address provided by the ISP. There are 2 common ways to get the routing function. One is to use Internet Connection Sharing built into the OS (both Windows and Mac OS can do that). You need 2 network adapters in the computer doing the sharing. You connect one adapter to the DSL modem and the other to the second computer. The second way is to buy a router/switch combination. You connect both computers to the switch and the WAN link on the router to the DSL modem. In my experience, the switch/router is a bit more expensive and a lot more reliable than Internet Connection Sharing.
Hi,
I use a D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Router with both mac and pc in my office. Basically your login details for ADSL go into the router and it stays online all the time, you just set both your mac and pc to use DHCP to set internal IP addresses. It works pretty well, it's a 4 port router and it's a switch rather than a hub. The benefit of a switch over a hub is that it manages the traffic better than a hub, but unless you've got a lot of machines on a network and are moving a lot of data around then it won't make that much difference. Oh, it was around about £85 for that router.
The alternative would be just a cheap hub or the crossover cable, if you set up the PC to use your existing adsl modem on it then you can use Win98SE's Internet Connection Sharing option to share the connection with your mac, you just need to set your macs network settings to DHCP and it will receive an internal IP address from the PC. I think you should be able to share the printer too.
This solution only requires the standard ISP setup, it doesn't need to IP address, the DHCP set up simply resolves the 2 machines internal IP address so it only needs the one Ip address that your ISP gives you, it only looks like one machine connected to the net.
It is possible to share the net connection on the Mac but I've had problems getting PCs to see the internet connection before when doing it that way round. I've never had problems getting a Mac to see a PC's internet connection before though.
Also, this method
Another advantage of a hardware router connection versus a modem connected directly to a machine is speed, I noticed a visible difference in speed and performance online when I switch to a router.
Anyway, just my thoughts...
Cheers,
Rick
I use a D-Link DSL-504 ADSL Router with both mac and pc in my office. Basically your login details for ADSL go into the router and it stays online all the time, you just set both your mac and pc to use DHCP to set internal IP addresses. It works pretty well, it's a 4 port router and it's a switch rather than a hub. The benefit of a switch over a hub is that it manages the traffic better than a hub, but unless you've got a lot of machines on a network and are moving a lot of data around then it won't make that much difference. Oh, it was around about £85 for that router.
The alternative would be just a cheap hub or the crossover cable, if you set up the PC to use your existing adsl modem on it then you can use Win98SE's Internet Connection Sharing option to share the connection with your mac, you just need to set your macs network settings to DHCP and it will receive an internal IP address from the PC. I think you should be able to share the printer too.
This solution only requires the standard ISP setup, it doesn't need to IP address, the DHCP set up simply resolves the 2 machines internal IP address so it only needs the one Ip address that your ISP gives you, it only looks like one machine connected to the net.
It is possible to share the net connection on the Mac but I've had problems getting PCs to see the internet connection before when doing it that way round. I've never had problems getting a Mac to see a PC's internet connection before though.
Also, this method
Another advantage of a hardware router connection versus a modem connected directly to a machine is speed, I noticed a visible difference in speed and performance online when I switch to a router.
Anyway, just my thoughts...
Cheers,
Rick