Computer-to-computer network WEP Only ?

I am not sure why they do that, but I've discovered that WiFi security isn't all that secure anyways so I don't put a lot of thought in to anymore.

 

Apple doesn't only offer WEP. The iMac was never meant for use as a wireless router, which is what you're attempting to use it for. Internet sharing is meant only as a bridge in a pinch so you can string together computers that share an internet connection (why most of the options are via a cable). What you need for secure wireless access for your iPod is a router. Not an iMac.

If you're asking about the functionality of the iMac's sharing feature only, you are in the wrong forum.

 

It's a poor excuse at best

This burns me too. Especially since Windows allows for ad hoc networks to be created using WPA. Don't listen to people who say "only a router can do that". There is nothing fundamentally different from your computer with a WiFi port and an router/access point. The chip sets commonly used in routers may be different, but not necessarily.

I wish Apple or a third party developer would allow a Mac to create ad hoc networks using WPA as well as 5Ghz (802.11A) channels. It may not be defined in the IEEE 802 spec, but if you wait for a standards body to come up with it, you will be waiting a long time.

 

It's not a wireless access point in the true sense of the term. It's an ad hoc connection with limited functionality and therefore limited options.

 

I know exactly what you're referring to. I've used this method to bridge a wireless connection to an eMac in the past. Because the Mac was never meant to be a router, it does not provide the full functionality of one. Simple as that.

 

All the options you're showing there:
- CD or DVD sharing
- Screen Sharing
- File Sharing
- Internet Sharing
- And EVERY OTHER OPTION IN THE LIST...

Are all TCP/IP servers that function over any network connection, without respect for the physical medium over which the services are connected, and without respect for they type of security (or absence of security) that may be offered by that physical medium. In fact, all those options would still be available if you were to set up a Computer-to-Computer sharing session that used two physical Ethernet ports, rather than one Ethernet port and one WiFi connection. And the same options would also be available if you were using the WiFi connection as the PRIMARY connection, and you were using the Mac to share with other devices via the Ethernet jack.

None of them have ANYTHING to do with the next layer down on the sharing ladder, namely: The physical link layer.

It's this physical link layer that has extremely limited functionality when you do a direct Computer-to-Computer connection via WiFi on a Mac. Some of the sacrifices that have been made (either for the sake of simplicity, or in other cases simply due to lack of appropriate hardware) include:
- Much more limited range.
- Much simplified traffic prioritization leading to reduced throughput.
- Much more limited options in terms of security.

In Windows the situation is only slightly better. You might have the option of selecting WPA or WPA2 as the security layer when you set up an ad-hoc connection, but only if the WiFi adapter itself physically has the capability to handle WPA/WPA2 encyrption at the hardware layer, rather than offloading some (or all) of the encryption to the main CPU. The vast majority of WiFi adapters do not include that functionality, so virtually all the time, the best you could do on a Windows PC is WEP.

In Linux, you are often presented the OPTION of using WPA/WPA2 for ad-hoc WiFi sharing, but in my experience, it has never worked.

So the Mac is pretty much par for the course in this respect.

 

Thank you for providing that description. Exactly what I was driving at.