Please Help! DSL and the Mac Cube

theblackhattheblackhat
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I am a freshman and have "inherited" a nice Mac Cube '' and am not familiar enough with Mac connectivity to know how to interface it with my DSL modem. My modem uses an ethernet port on its end and would connect to my Cube's ethernet port but I already have it occupied with a cable connected to my HP 4050N printer. I have a firewire port and a USB port on the bottom of the Cube which is unused. ''



I am fascinated with the Cube but don't know what would be the ideal solution. '' Should I look for a Mac ethernet "hub" which I can plug into my cube and summarily run both my HP printer and my DSL router off of? Or should I look for a Mac-supported USB to Ethernet adapter so that I could connect my DSL modem to my Cube's USB port - or would that seriously affect my 512K DSL connection speed? '' I notice Belkin, Netgear, and the like seem to make switches and adapters - yet most seem to support only PCs. ''



Or what about a Mac supported router - would that give me a firewall in addition to two ports from which I could run my HP printer and DSL router - or would that make the DSL modem redundant? ''



Any help anyone could give me - including actual product names and Numbers for the very best "hook-up" - would be greatly appreciated!



Thanks!! '8)'

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    Any switch/hub with RJ-45 (MMJ8) connectors will work.

    Its not a PC specific item.



    Just plug all your components in and enjoy.



    Dobby.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    theblackhattheblackhat Posts: 26member
    Please forgive me - but don't switches affect the performance of each connected component.



    What would the "optimum" setup be - all things considered?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    theblackhattheblackhat Posts: 26member
    After calling both MacConnections and MacWarehouse I cannot find a switch/hub that is supported for the Mac. The PC supported products all have software that must be installed and drivers that must be loaded. Is it the same for the Mac?
  • Reply 4 of 5
    thunderpoitthunderpoit Posts: 709member
    considering you only have 2 things to plug in, even a cheap $10 hub would work fine for you , and even at 10mps, network performance would not be affected at all.



    hubs and switches are os independant, so you do not need to worry about it supporting mac os or not. Most, if not all, will come with printed instructions for both platforms.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    theblackhattheblackhat Posts: 26member
    Thank you so much!! I get it now!! Mac is so fine!!! I'm so used to settings, drivers and anything else Microsoft can dream up to make things harder than necessary that I couldn't get around what you were saying for awhile!



    Thank you for your patience!!
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