Switcher needs to ad-hoc to move files, help!

[sjcaguy]

Hello all. FedEx is on their way (saw the woman this morning, said she was coming back before 2:00) and I'm wanting to switch to my new mac ASAP.

I'm coming from a PC laptop running Windows XP PRO. I have a wireless card for the PC and AE card in the new Mac, but not a wireless router in the house (buying next week). So the PC is now connected to my DSL modem via ethernet (I know it's lame). But I have the wireless card.

So what I want to do is connect the computers to move pictures, music, etc. It's more than I want to burn on a CD; plus, I'd like to know how to get this to work.

What do I need to do to get the computers to recognize each other?

I'm a total Mac newbie, so be gentle.

 

[cpjakes]

A couple of options

Most of this can be accomplished in your System Preferences - Sharing pane. You can do it over WiFi, but you could probably also use ethernet. Either way, a couple of things need to happen:

1) Turn on Windows File Sharing. This allows you to connect to/from Windows.

2) I would recommend that you turn on Internet Sharing in the Internet tab. Here's where it gets tricky. You can either share your connection over ethernet or AE. Whichever you pick will automatically broadcast as a DHCP server.

From there, it should just be a matter of getting your PC to find your Mac as a server. By default, loggin in from the PC to the Mac will get you at your home folder. If you want to copy everything there, that's fine. If not (if you set up partitions, for example), then it's a little easier to enable sharing on a PC folder and mount that shared volume on the Mac.

The only thing that might be tricky here is setting up a false internet connection that you're going to share on the Mac, since you will probably have no real connection.

I hope this is somewhat clear. It's not really a hard process, it's just a matter of keeping it all straight.

Good luck!

cpjakes

 

[sjcaguy]

it's here! now i just need to switch.

well, i'm not exactly sure how to go about this.
but the computer is here!

hopefully someone can give me more specifics, if there ARE more specifics.

 

[rueyeet]

Apple's Switch how-to has most of the specifics of where to find the files you will want to move, and where to put them on your Mac.

Welcome, and good luck!

 

[sjcaguy]

no no...i know where the files are on my PC. Don't worry.

I just need to network the two computers.

 

[jeremy.king]

Never really tried peer to peer

sjcaguy, I would suggest getting a router or at a bare minimum, an ethernet hub and setup a small home network.

You can accomplish this for transfer purposes by connecting both machines to the network hub and setting both computers IPs to 192.168.1.X where X is between 1 and 255. Subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0.

Once you accomplish this, you can transfer the files from your PC to your mac by first enabling file sharing on your pc and then from your mac you can connect to it by hitting Command+k in the finder and Rendevous should find the pc on the network. Select the share and then drag and drop away

I haven't heard of anyone setting up a peer to peer network (network without access point) using Jaguar and a Windows PC, and I think thats what you were hoping to do.

If you intend to keep the PC, A routers not a investment as its the easiest way to share an internet connection.

Good Luck

 

[sjcaguy]

okay: here's the deal. i'm going to get a router. i'm just going out of town for a while and don't have time to order one from amazon.com, but i need to transfer all my files from the PC to the Mac. I'm going to be getting a wireless router for the house as soon as i return.