Secure Home Network- G5 and Macbook Pro

[PCM]

HI all,

please forgive me if this has been asked before, as it's a REALLY simple question, but I am confused and can't seem to get things straightened out regarding home networking.

What I want to do:

1) Set up a wireless network so that I can swap files and folders wirelessly between my Macbook Pro and G5.
2) Make sure my network is SECURE
3) Be able to access the 2ND hardrive on my G5 (not the boot drive).

So far I've done quite a bit of research and I cannot for some reason get this to work. I've tried the "create network" function but I can't connect from the other computer - it tells me my password or username is incorrect when I try to log in as a registered user - even though it's the same pass I created only moments before. NOw I can't find out how to delete the old network I've created even though I disconnected. This is the only part of OSX I've ever been confused about.

If anyone can point me to a great tutorial, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

p.s. my airport express is already configured and working fine with PPoe (DSL).

 

[GimmeSlack12]

This is easier than you would expect. Everything you need is in your Sharing Preferences. Go there on both computers and select Personal File Sharing and turn it on. At the top of the sharing window is the short name that is basically your address on the network.

Once sharing is turned on go to the other computer and in the Finder under the Go menu Connect to Server. Now type in that short name for the other computer and add '.local' after it (example: shortname.local). That should prompt you a login. Login as the admin for the computer you are connecting to. After you login you will be asked what Drives you want to access, this is where you could select your 2nd Hard drive. You can also print from any printer connected to either of the computers from the other one by using Network Printer in the print dialog box (before printing).

Repeat the same steps for your other computer.

This is secure as it is a network between your Mac's and also anyone on the outside would need your login/pass for your computers to get to any files. Also if you have a WEP network with your router then you are more than fine on Security.
Note: from my experience transfer speeds wirelessly are not as fast as you might hope. I never really tried to find a solution to this problem.

 

[PCM]

Great THANKS!

you're right , the file transfer is SLOW but mostly I want to be able to transfer docs and just organize things from one computer to the other.

It's slower than FTPing though - why is that?

 

[Fearless Leader]

well if you need to transfer larger files. just take an ethernet cable and plug the two directly together. you can transfer bout 100 megabytes a second. it was very very nice to transfer my 20gig itunes library in 3 minuets.