it will work
as others have said, this is entirely doable. i did it last week.
my setup:
- Linksys router (non-wireless) hooked up to dsl.
- g4, w/ airport card, hooked up to router
- ibook, w/ airport card, sitting in living room
both machines are running 10.2.3.
you have the option of setting up a peer-to-peer network or a dhcp server on your "base station." i recommend the latter.
on the "base station" (i.e. my g4):
1. in network control panel, use the pulldown to show "Airport." in the tcp/ip panel, set it to configure manually and hardcode an ip address. i use: 10.0.1.1 and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask.
2. click on the Airport tab and ensure that "Allow this computer to create networks" is checked.
3. go to Sharing control panel, Internet tab. make sure you've enabled "Share your internet connection w/ other Airport-equipped computers"
4. click the Airport options... button. enter a network name. i enable encryption and use a 128-bit scheme. you'll have to give your network a password (highly recommended).
5. in the Sharing/Internet control panel, click Start
6. if you don't see the airport icon in the menu bar (upper right), turn that on in Internet Connect (in the Applications folder)
7. in the airport icon, you should see some grey concentric arcs (meaning airport is turned on) and a solid arrow pointing up (meaning DHCP airport is active)
on the airport client (my ibook):
1. in network control panels, go to Show: Airport and configure using DHCP. btw i have the earthlink DNS addresses typed in there but i don't think it's necessary.
2. make sure the airport icon is in the menu bar. it should be the grey concentric arcs (if not, open Internet Connect and turn airport on).
3. click on the menu bar airport icon and select the airport network name you made in step 4., above
4. in the popup, enter the password you made. i store mine in my keychain (there's a checkbox for that) so this step can be skipped later.
5. the grey concentric arcs should now be black. if so, you've got internet access!
6. every time i wake from sleep, i must repeat step #3.
EDIT: i found a workaround. in Network/Airport, there's an option on what to do after restart or waking from sleep. i put it on "join most recently used available network," turned on remember network password, and now it automatically reconnects.
that's it! and because you're running DHCP, anyone can come over w/ their airport-enabled laptop and get your network (assuming you give them the password, which is why you want to make one)
one further note:
before i set up the dhcp model, i did peer to peer. as part of that effort, i had to make a change to hostconfig. i don't know if that's necessary for dhcp. so if the above doesn't work, do this step on your "base station."
i hope you know how to use the terminal, command line, and vi.
1. open a terminal
2. su to root
3. cd to /etc
4. edit hostconfig (i use vi)
5. ensure that IPFORWARDING is turned on. it should look like:
IPFORWARDING=-YES-
6. save the file
7. you may have to restart
8. try the "base station" airport stuff again
NOTE:
sometimes, on the "base station," my network doesn't want to turn on when i press Start in Internet sharing. to remedy, i open Internet Connect, turn airport off, turn it back on, then try Start again. that works for me.
despite the length of these instructions, it's actually quite straightforward.
good luck!
