Hiya
Just got a new mac Mini this morning (drool soaked t-shirt etc..)
and I'll be wanting to play with it all night.
Now then, I've got cable broadband, wireless hub, 2 pc's with wireless pci cards plus onboard ethernet.
I want to get the mac on the network too. It's got an ehternet port.
Here's my idea, will it work?:
plug the uplink of a 10/100 hub into the ethernet of one pc and plug the mac into the hub too.

Basically, can the pc share the connection from the wireless card to the onboard ethernet port?
Any ideas??

I'm confused, you have 2 PC's connected to the hub wirelessly at the moment?

If so, what's plugged into the ethernet port on the wireless hub, (which I assume is actually an access point, or is it a wireless router)?

I think I see what you're trying to do, but the Mac will only have access to the hub, internet and network if the PC it's pluged into is turned on.

If this is acceptable then why the 10\100 hub? Just plug a crossover cable straight into each ethernet port on the Mac and PC.

you can do what you're suggesting as long as the pc is running xp pro, enable ics (internet connection sharing) and tell the mac to pick up an ip address from dhcp.
It doesn't sound like an ideal setup though, better to plug it directly into the hub if it has an ethernet port, or better still get airport on the mini mac and connect wirelessly.

Why does it have to be XP Pro?

plug the uplink of a 10/100 hub into the ethernet of one pc and plug the mac into the hub too.

If you mean the uplink port then its slightly more complicated than just plugging in a straight-through patch cable. Uplink ports are wired differently (pins 1/3 & 2/6 swapped to allow you to use a straight patch cable between devices instead of a crossover). Using a crossover cable between hub and computer would work if this is the case. Some "uplink" ports are self-sensing, if this is the case then you can use whatever you want (straight-thru/crossover).

If the hub has some spare standard ports then you would be far better served just plugging into those instead of messing about with the uplink port. If you are only wanting to network (wired) the 2 devices you don't even need a hub, just using the aforementioned crossover cable between the 2 NICs will do the trick.

Basically, can the pc share the connection from the wireless card to the onboard ethernet port?

There's lots of ways you can do this. Internet connection sharing should work (although be aware it will force you to use 192.168.0.1 as the interface IP address which may conflict with the network you already have), you can bridge the 2 connections in network connections (click on both adapters whilst holding the shift key and right click... bridge connections) or run some 3rd party NAT/proxy/webcache software (lansuite602, winroute, ISA, etc) depending on your needs.

In any of these set ups you don't necessarily need XP pro and unless you are running some software that includes a DHCP server (I think both lansuite and winroute include DHCP servers), you wouldn't set the Mac to pick up its IP address from DHCP. You would need to statically assign them both an ip on a different subnet from your wireless lan.

Ha! Sorted it.

Got both the mac and pc wired to a workgroup hub. Ran the network setup wizard on the pc with wireless. Now the mac is connected to the net via the pc. The mac seems to be faster than the pc regards internet speed and dL speeds, reached a steady 104K which I've never even dreamed about on the pc!

Fair enough.

Why via the PC though? Don't tell me you're setting up a network with a mixture of PC's and Macs and still using a USB modem on a PC.

Originally posted by Lurch
Fair enough.

Why via the PC though? Don't tell me you're setting up a network with a mixture of PC's and Macs and still using a USB modem on a PC.
Cable, (modem and wireless hub) comes through into the house in my bedroom and my GF has banned me from having computers in there. I didn't get an airport with the mac either. It's all a bit messy, but it seems to be working quite well. Although having two keyboards, mice and monitors on one desk is driving me a bit potty!

Ah, I see! If I were you, I'd run a cat 5 from the bedroom to wherever the PC's are and stick a router in there. You can then connect all of them through the router individually via the network ports.

Originally posted by hade
Although having two keyboards, mice and monitors on one desk is driving me a bit potty!

Buy a KVM switch then. :wink: I got a cheapo 4 port one from Ebuyer and it works well.