Computer-Computer/Adhoc networking

[yg17]

Here's the problem:

I've got some movies (legal ) on my PowerMac G5. I'd like to watch them on my PowerBook hooked up to the TV in the other room, but the problem is, ethernet in the dorms is only 10mbit since IT is cheap as hell. 10mbit seems to be just a tad too slow to stream movies without skipping. However, both computers have Airport Extreme, and 54mbit should be more than enough to stream. I originally had internet sharing over Airport setup and that would work, but a friend told me that IT banned him from the network for 2 days for running a DHCP server, so I don't want that risk. My other option is adhoc. I went to my PowerMac and made a network, and can connect to it from my PowerBook, but each computer self assigns an IP address (I think its 169.something) and neither can share files between each other. How do I setup adhoc to do this? Thanks.

 

[mad jew]

Have you turned on AppleTalk in the Network Preferences?

 

[yg17]

Have you turned on AppleTalk in the Network Preferences?

Yep.

It seems to be very, very picky. I woke up my Powerbook from sleep and it started working great. I closed my PB, came back about 20 minutes later, woke it up again, and it didn't work. Without me changing any settings or touching a thing

 

[mad jew]

So it's working some of the time then? That's just the nature of ad-hoc networking, it's not very reliable.

But you can transfer files sometimes, right? Which Sharing services do you have turned on (System Preferences)?

 

[yg17]

Yeah, I can transfer files when it works. Ive got AFP, SMB and SSH enabled

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, sorry. I think it's just that ad-hoc networks suck. For what it's worth, I always find it easier to connect to another computer using the manual method from the Finder's Go menu than from actually navigating to the Network section of the Finder.

 

[belvdr]

I would run static IPs on an ad-hoc network. Just pick something outside of the subnet the education facility uses.

Most likely IT banned the person from running a DHCP server on their network. That can cause network outages for them, but running a DHCP server between the two computers' AE cards would have no effect.