Help: Sharing dialup among 3 Macs

[stepandy]

Hi,
In the absence of ADSL service, I am forced to go back to dial up. However, none of our active MBPs have inbuilt modems. As a result, I have dusted off my old G4 and fired up connection over inbuilt modem and PPP.
I was hoping to share this dial up connection over ethernet with our "newer" MBPs.

Set up - all macs are networked via Gigabit switch and IP addresses are assigned via DHCP. 2 MBPs are running 10.4.9. G4 is running 10.4.7.

All macs can see each other via network, eg, I can mount them on either desktop.

When I connect to my ISP via G4, I have activated Internet sharing under Sharing -> Internet (eg, selected internet sharing from dial up and destination as ethernet). Also, I have ticked Enable Web sharing under Services pane.

However, I can't access the net from MBPs hooked to the network.

I have disable Firewalls on all macs.

What am I missing?

Help...

 

[Snide]

Get an Airport card

I too tried sharing a dial-up connection this way, and couldn't get it to work.

At the moment I am posting from my Macbook using a shared internet connection
from a 600 Mhz G3 iMac equipped with a (original) Airport wireless card. Works great!

If you have a G4 tower, it likely uses the newer Airport Extreme card, which
can be found used for $30 - $40. Another benefit of doing it this way is that
laptop-toting visitors can use your connection to get online.

 

[Sherman Homan]

I haven't tried that exact set up, but it should be possible. What IP addresses are the laptops getting? I suspect that the problem has to do with DNS services. If you type in an numeric IP address on the laptops, does it connect? Try this:
17.254.3.183
You can turn off Service-->Web Sharing. That is only sharing html in the G4's "Sites" folder.

 

[iSaint]

Gah! Dial-up? I don't think I could stand that. Is there no other option? Cable? Satellite? Sprint Card?

 

[The General]

What's dialup?

Sorry, I can't help you.

 

[stepandy]

Success...
My network was set up the way that all Macs used dynamic IP via DHCP with a static router address. I guess, this prevented MBPs to see G4 as a gateway.
What I did is assign manual IP address to MBPs with router address IP set as G4.

For the folks who don't know the joys of Dial Up...

I live in Australia where broadband backbone, eg ADSL is in a hands of one Telco company - Telstra. This company in its wisdom has been rolling out outdated technology for some time now. The technology that does not support fully support broadband, ADSL to be more specific. There are many many houses that are hooked up to a Pair Gain system, and new ones are still being hooked up (including mine).
Read up on Pair Gain here http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=717966

Furthermore, if one is lucky to get a line that does support ADSL, there is an issue with exchanges. There are bunch of exchanges that are ADSL enabled and some even ADSL 2. However, there are some that not, and Telstra has also deployed RIMs - a technology to extend the reach of big exchanages. However, only 20% of line hooked to RIMs can be hooked to ADSL. I am also unlucky one that does not fall into those 20%.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=720348

To make things worse, many, many ADSL blackspots does not cable or wireless coverage. In my situation, I am 9 km from CBD (city centre) and I can't get broadband. My only option is satellite

Read up on Australia's Broadband blackspots
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=725814

 

[SkyBell]

Dial-up isn't fast or reliable by any means, but it is a nice backup to have from time to time. (I use it every once in a while.)

If you want to be cheap, there is Great Dial Up for free. (Also a $5 a month charge for premium; support a great service, and use the $5 service ).

 

[iSaint]

Thanks for the explanation. You gotta do what you gotta do! I'm sure it's a lot better than it was six years ago.