Mr Goose Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 Mr Goose has puzzled face - I have telewest broadband. At the moment the cable modem box-thing is connected to my iMac. I need to use a PC for work - potentially at the same time Mrs Goose is using the iMac for work. I've been told to use a "wireless router" - has anybody tried this with a PC and a mac on telewest? Honk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 is it a utp connection or a usb connection ? if it's a utp connection then a simple router will do if it's usb it gets a bit more complicated you only need a wifi connection if you need to be able to move the pc/mac around a lot and trailing UTP cables are inconvenient or not possible due to location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKSentinel Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 I think the issue of the original post is whether a mac and a windows pc can use the same router connection. My Telewest colleague assures me that it can since the only issue you would have is which pc you want to run the router software onto ie the windows or the mac one. Other than that, once the router has the IPs of the pcs, it should be plain sailing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carcrash Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 You can both use the the box but not at the same time unless you go WIFI. My other half has a pc laptop and I have a mac. I did look look into going wireless and it seems easy enough, just get a router thats compatable and run it off one machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sallonoroff Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 No need to go 'wireless' if you don't want to. You could buy a router/switch and then the PC and Mac would both connect via ethernet. I know the iMac has ethernet (they all do as standard), but you might have to get a network card for the PC if it doesn't already have a LAN socket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 You can both use the the box but not at the same time unless you go WIFI. My other half has a pc laptop and I have a mac. I did look look into going wireless and it seems easy enough, just get a router thats compatable and run it off one machine. not correct you do not have to go wifi to share the connection a non wifi router will split the incoming connection between several machines with ordinary UTP cables costing a couple of quid, the router will cost around £20 and the mac and the PC normally have a UTP connection built in, there is the minor inconvenience of trailing wires to consider though going wifi allows you to sit in the garden or watch tv while working and costs a lot more, the router doubles in price, there's no cable cost but it's highly likely the mac isn't wifi capable and will need an adaptor, same for the PC assuming it's a desktop pc. some wifi routers will allow UTP connections just in case the PC is wifi capable and the mac isn't for example but it's still more expensive than a wired router both methods will allow sharing of the internet connection but rely on the cable modem having a UTP connection, as I said before it gets a bit more complicated if the cable modem connects to the mac via USB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sallonoroff Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 it's highly likely the mac isn't wifi capable and will need an adaptor Yep, getting an original Airport card (assuming the iMac is an old-ish one) will cost you an arm and a leg... and maybe a few toes from the other one... If it needs an Airport Extreme card then you should be fine... though if it's a really quite new iMac (G5 or intel) then wifi has become pretty-much standard on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 Oh and using router software (such as the internet connection sharing on a PC) is even cheaper but requires that the machine doing the routing has a second network card and is turned on and logged in when the other machine needs to use the internet and if that machine fails then the other one can't see the internet, unless you rejig the cables to connect directly of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sugarcube Posted September 6, 2006 Share Posted September 6, 2006 with telewest BB you get the motorola surfboard which has a 32 address dhcp router inside, ive been told by the guy who installed our cable TV if you plug one computer into the usb and the other into the ethernet you can then use both computer on the one modem. ive had problems with this and am not sure if its completely true, i think you can have this "enabled" by paying a bit more but ive only ever managed to get one dhcp lease from my modem also i didnt do this because i have ICS running on my main machine. hth EDIT: btw if you do go wired you must buy a "router" and not a switch due to the above modem only dishing out 1 dhcp lease at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esme Posted September 6, 2006 Share Posted September 6, 2006 I think someone on the board, (possibly alkatraz ..not sure) mentioned the bb router handed out by telewest has been restricted to a single client IP address Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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