NETWORKING Mac's???

[AFMRPCUSER]

Greetings:

I looked long and hard for a Forum on Networking and forgive me if I was in the Forest looking for the trees but at this hour I find no forum here regarding Networking. I have several Mac's, printers and mass storage drives. Now that I am situated in my new home, I would like to network the whole Kit & Kaboodle together. I envision the two Mac's three printers a mass storage system and a Wireless Router for a laptop downstairs, all linked together via Ethernet. I have searched the WWW until I have accumulate so much DATA that my eyes are tired and all the vendors continue tell the same lies. I would appreciate any suggestions, recommendations or what is reliable expandable and has worked flawlessly for you.

 

[milbournosphere]

Start with the basics

i would reccommend starting simple. Get the wifi router up and running with your main machine first, whether it be connected wirelessly or not. Next, concentrate on sharing a printer while it is connected to said machine. At this point, if you have your router going you should be able to connect your machines via ethernet/wifi, and have them all print to one printer. Start simple, work your way up in complexity, this way you can continue to have a solid base to work off of, rather than try to throw it all together at once. For example, with your data storage, start off sharing it via one machine, and eventually branch out to nas hardware based on your needs and how they pan out. OS X is a capable OS, and if you think it out right, what you are proposing is actually quite simple.

Hardware wise, you will probably get multiple opinions, but I tend to stick to Linksys or Netgear if I can (I've had good luck with netgears switches and hubs, but stay away from their routers. the firmware sucks). If you live near a t-mobile store, go in there and ask for one of their "old black and blue routers". These are essentially WRT54G's, but with t-mobile branding and $30 dollars worth of savings. I'll quit rambling on, this should be enough to get you started. I also recommend that you visit a book store. You can find books on OS X that actually provide some good-to-knowledge about the finer aspects of the OS. Hope this helps.

 

[AFMRPCUSER]

My Reply 2 U

Well, thanks for the quick reply. I'm not so sure if I can keep it simple but I can surely work in steps as you prescribed. I believe I will give some very strong consideration to a switch verses a router for obvious reasons, they're smart and prevent collisions. I will look into Netgear as you suggested. We have all high-end gear at work and I see no reason to purchase that level of equipment for a home LAN. I will probably invest in a 16 port switch for expansion purposes because the present equipment will reach 8 ports very soon and not have room to expand. The value and reliability of the hardware is the most important concern and as always, I never flinch at the price when I know I have dependable high quality gear. TNX AGN.