Mac Mini as a router and print server for PC, good idea?

[Capt Crunch]

Right now I've got a Time Capsule with a printer connected to it. My macbook and my wife's old Toshiba laptop both can connect to the internet and print easily and reliably.

For various reasons I'd like to get rid of the Time Capsule, plug my cable modem and printer directly into the Mini and have it share both internet and the printer. Can this be done as easily as it was to set up the Time Capsule? Will it be reliable?

I'm not too worried about range since I live in an apartment.

 

[Genghis Khan]

You will have to have the mini always on, and need a monitor and mouse and keyboard for it.

And it won't act as a backup disc for your Mac



But apart from that it'll work just the same

 

[Capt Crunch]

You will have to have the mini always on, and need a monitor and mouse and keyboard for it.

And it won't act as a backup disc for your Mac



But apart from that it'll work just the same

Why would you need a keyboard and mouse for it? Or do you mean temporarily to set it up?

 

[brand]

To be a router the mini will preferable need two wired ethernet adapters. You could do it with a with one ethernet adapter and the wireless adapter but it would be considered more of a wireless access point. You will also need to setup DHCP on the Mini to serve IP address to your devices.

You can use the Mac Mini as a Time Machine backup for your MacBook if you create a sparse disk image and share it over the network, then the MacBook would mount the image and it would show up under Time Macine. You would probably want to use a high capacity external 1394 drive on the Mini for this.

Only after the Mac Mini is initially setup can you loose the KVM and remote into to manage it.