Connecting two Macs through Ethernet

Turn off everything in the Sharing Pane on the iMac. Just set the Network to get the IP via DHCP. After about 3 minutes, everything should work fine.

TEG

 

another

re ethernet connect,

With file sharing enabled, I only had to open a Finder window, then drag and drop files to copy from one Mac to the other.

Just be sure the files you want to move are in a shared folder and file sharing is enabled. (steps below, if needed)

re sleeping MBP,
One method, if practical for you: Your laptop won't automatically go to sleep when you close it if you've connected an external monitor and keyboard. (You might need to set the monitor arrangement for mirrored displays, but not sure about this.)

Also, you may need to open System Preferences and open Energy Saver and change settings so it won't go to sleep after a specified period of time.

For what it's worth: If the main reason you want to close your laptop is just to avoid the distraction of an open screen, you might solve your problem by simply using your brightness buttons to dim the screen to black. You can still detect a faint outline of screen contents at the dimmest setting, but it's almost as good as "turning off" the monitor ... and it won't affect your sleep settings.

To enable file sharing:
- open System Preferences
- open Sharing
- click File Sharing box to enable (if not already "checked")

To share a folder:
- open Finder window
- right-click the folder you want to share
- click Get Info to open the information pane
- in the lower-right corner of the pane, check to see if the "padlock" icon indicates that the file is locked. (if so, click the icon; a pop-up window will prompt you to enter your user/password to authenticate and unlock)
- under the general info, click the Shared Folder box to enable
- under Sharing and Permissions, check to see if the User login name for the connected Mac appears on the list. (If not, click the "+" sign to add it)
- in order to freely move files, assign "Read & Write" Access Privilege for the user login name of your connected Mac.

 

I'll add one note (I've been using Macs for 19 years and OSX since it came out, and yet never realised this: )

If you allow guest users write access to a folder on your computer, all files they create in that folder will be read-only. That's because only the creator gets write access (everyone else gets read-only), and the creator in this case is 'nobody'. Hence, no one has write-access.

As the "Mac guy", I had to help out in my sister's office when all their files were being saved read-only, so no one else could modify them. It turns out the solution was to always connect to the other machine via a Registered User, never via Guest.

Technically, it makes sense. But from a user's perspective, it's silly.

 

Download insomniaX and enable it on your MBP