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Networking problem/advice.

Falleron

Falleron

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 22, 2001
1,609
0
UK
Ok, here is the situation. I am doing a job which involves networking 3 macs + 5 PC's together so they all have Internet access. However, there must be room for file sharing at some point in the future. I have created networks before where one computer acts as a server + the rest connect to that computer for the internet. I dont really like this setup as it means that the server has to be left on permantly. By using a router I could get round this problem? I am not against using a router, but want to make it nice and simple for the owners once I have gone. How would you create a network that is easy to use and maintain?

NB. I was thinking about possibly using an Airport Base station on one floor for some of the computers + then using the LAN port to connect the rest. What do you think of this idea? The aiport base station acts as the router doesn't it + would mean a computer would not have to be left on?

Thanks for your help.
 
This would do the job for you.
It is a router, so it would share the internet connection to all machines, it is a DHCP server so it will assign an IP to all networked machines which means less messing around with static IP's. It also has a built in 8 port 10/100 switch which would allow you to connect all of your machines to it.
It is easy to configue, simply open a web browser on a connected machine and enter http://192.168.1.1 and you will enter a very nice web based config tool that lets you do all manor of clever stuff.
 
Cheers edesignuk. So, it takes the dynamic IP address assigned from the Cable company + automatically distributes IP addresses to the networked machines? Presumably, the router has its own MAC address which is registered with the cable company?

Realistically, how straight forward is it? In my experience, the people I am setting this up for really dont want any hassles once I have set it up.
 
Originally posted by Falleron
Cheers edesignuk. So, it takes the dynamic IP address assigned from the Cable company + automatically distributes IP addresses to the networked machines? Presumably, the router has its own MAC address which is registered with the cable company?

Realistically, how straight forward is it? In my experience, the people I am setting this up for really dont want any hassles once I have set it up.
Click to expand...
It is very straight forward, i set mine up with NO networking know how what-so-ever.
yes, it gets and IP from your ISP then distributes IP's to each machine, and you can either register the router MAC with you ISP or spoof the MAC address to one that is allready registered from with the web based setup.
 
Cheers edesignuk. I think I will go with your suggestion. I guess I get paid twice if it stops working further down the line :) .
 
I have the SMC Barricade 4 port router/switch and set-up was easy as cake. Plug the broadband into one side, plug the computers into the other and the do basic setup on each machine to make sure it "sees" the router and yer done.

Like edesignuk I had no networking experience before this and w/in 45 minutes of opening the box I had 3PCs and 1 Mac sharing broadband. File sharing took a bit longer to setup, but that was a machine related deal, not a router one.

Lethal
 
I was just reading on the router company web site that they dont offer support to Macs. I know that the router will work because it uses TCP/IP. However, I take it that the Web setup program will function as it would on a PC. Probably a silly question, but just wanted to check.
 
Originally posted by Falleron
I was just reading on the router company web site that they dont offer support to Macs. I know that the router will work because it uses TCP/IP. However, I take it that the Web setup program will function as it would on a PC. Probably a silly question, but just wanted to check.
Click to expand...

This sounds like malarkey to me:

The Web setup runs in a browser, and there are browsers for Macs. I've setup some of these "don't support Mac" products in the past with Macs. Often, this is a cop out for the underpaid tech support monkies at the company.

Google will help you gauge the sucess/failures of this (and other) hardware you may have thought was PC only (my personal favorite being generic VGA monitors).
 
As a note, if you are using private addresses, such as 192.168.x.x, you will have issues running publically addressable servers. For instance, if you want to run a web server on one of your machines, you will need to tell your router that traffic coming into it on port 80 be redirected to the private ip address of your web server. The same for running a mail server, dns server, or ftp server.

It probably will not be much of an issue. NAT works just fine for many applications, such as yours.
 
Originally posted by edesignuk

It is easy to configue, simply open a web browser on a connected machine and enter http://192.168.1.1 and you will enter a very nice web based config tool that lets you do all manor of clever stuff.
Click to expand...

uhhh. I just plugged everything together and it worked. What exactly does this web config. thing do? I went there but I need a user name and password, which i dont have and dont know where to get.
 
Originally posted by me hate windows


uhhh. I just plugged everything together and it worked. What exactly does this web config. thing do? I went there but I need a user name and password, which i dont have and dont know where to get.
Click to expand...
Username field leave blank, and default password is admin, there is loads of stuff you can configure, port forwarding, filters etc.
 
Originally posted by edesignuk

It is easy to configue, simply open a web browser on a connected machine and enter http://192.168.1.1 and you will enter a very nice web based config tool that lets you do all manor of clever stuff.
Click to expand...

uhhh. I just plugged everything together and it worked. What exactly does this web config. thing do? I went there but I need a user name and password, which i dont have and dont know where to get.
 
Originally posted by Falleron
I was just reading on the router company web site that they dont offer support to Macs. I know that the router will work because it uses TCP/IP. However, I take it that the Web setup program will function as it would on a PC. Probably a silly question, but just wanted to check.
Click to expand...
Don't worry, it all works fine with a Mac because it's all web based. You should have no problems :)
 
Ok, this is what I am about to buy:

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=35&prid=415

I will be connecting via cables:

1 * Mac
2 * PC's

I will be connecting these wirelessly:

1 * Powerbook (Has airport card)
2 * PC's (Will be buying PCI cards 802.11b compliant cards)

What do you think? As far as I can see, this should work nicely.

By the way, how will I connect to the linksys router from the powerbook? Will the Airport admin tool do this for me??

Thanks for your help again.
 
Originally posted by Falleron
Ok, this is what I am about to buy:

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=35&prid=415

I will be connecting via cables:

1 * Mac
2 * PC's

I will be connecting these wirelessly:

1 * Powerbook (Has airport card)
2 * PC's (Will be buying PCI cards 802.11b compliant cards)

What do you think? As far as I can see, this should work nicely.

By the way, how will I connect to the linksys router from the powerbook? Will the Airport admin tool do this for me??

Thanks for your help again.
Click to expand...
WAP config can only be done via a PC, it connects via a USB lead and you then have to install some software to configure, other than that the rest should be fine.
 
Originally posted by edesignuk

WAP config can only be done via a PC, it connects via a USB lead and you then have to install some software to configure, other than that the rest should be fine.
Click to expand...
WAP? You have lost me.
 
Originally posted by edesignuk

WAP config can only be done via a PC, it connects via a USB lead and you then have to install some software to configure, other than that the rest should be fine.
Click to expand...
Thinking about it more, I could be wrong here. You may be able to do it all from the web based setup.
I have to do it like this on mine because it is a stand alone WAP, not built into the router, but as yours is all one unit you may configure it all as one unit from the same place.
 
Cheers, I am sure that once I get it, the instructions will tell me how to do it. Thanks for your help.
 
Before you get one, check on all of the deal sites around the internet, like pricewatch.com and dealmac.com. Both will have deals that you may not be able to find anywhere else. Doing a quick search on dealmac I found this:

http://dealmac.com/articles/42255.html

Look around you may even find a better deal.

Draft
 
Originally posted by Draft
Before you get one, check on all of the deal sites around the internet, like pricewatch.com and dealmac.com. Both will have deals that you may not be able to find anywhere else. Doing a quick search on dealmac I found this:

http://dealmac.com/articles/42255.html

Look around you may even find a better deal.

Draft
Click to expand...
Trouble is, most of these price comparisson websites are US$, Falleron is in the UK.
FYI dabs.com sell most of the linksys kit.
http://www.dabs.com/linksys/linksys.asp ;)
 
Cheers for that. I actually found the items I wanted from Amazon (they are about £30 cheaper than most places I have seen the product. It cost me £99 for the router which is about the same as the dabs one once you include the postage and packing. I have to say, the biggest cost for me on this job is the Wireless cards for the PC's. They cheapest are about £55. Some go for about £100.

Anyway, thanks again.
 
Will the powerbook with an airport card detect the linksys base station automatically from within the airport utility program?
 
Originally posted by Falleron
Will the powerbook with an airport card detect the linksys base station automatically from within the airport utility program?
Click to expand...

Yes. The airport card should be able to to recognize any 802.11b access point.
 
Originally posted by Rower_CPU


Yes. The airport card should be able to to recognize any 802.11b access point.
Click to expand...
I know that in theory the airport will connect to the linksys (both 802.11b compliant). However, I have never used airport + wanted to make sure that I am supposed to use the airport utility program to connect to the third party base + not some other utility.

Thanks
 
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