Networking
Okay, I'm the first to admit that I know NOTHING about networking. The whole thing scares me an I don't think I've ever managed to set everything up so that it works properly.
I'm trying to get three Macs running 10.3 to see each other. The two machines upstairs are connected via a "dumb" hub and are in turn connected to a third machine downstairs via a "smart" hub. There are also PCs and Ethernet printers involved but I don't want to get in to that right now.
We upgraded all the machines to 10.3 in the hope that we would finally be able to get them to talk to each other - yeah right!
So can anybody tell me how to set up the network? At the moment I'm just clicking on buttons and hoping for the best.
When you go to Network , there are Local, Servers (Alias) and Workgroup folders. Which one should I be going in to, and why does each machine appear twice, once normal and once uppercase?
Should AppleTalk be activated, or is it obsolete in OS X?
I'm trying to get three Macs running 10.3 to see each other. The two machines upstairs are connected via a "dumb" hub and are in turn connected to a third machine downstairs via a "smart" hub. There are also PCs and Ethernet printers involved but I don't want to get in to that right now.
We upgraded all the machines to 10.3 in the hope that we would finally be able to get them to talk to each other - yeah right!
So can anybody tell me how to set up the network? At the moment I'm just clicking on buttons and hoping for the best.
When you go to Network , there are Local, Servers (Alias) and Workgroup folders. Which one should I be going in to, and why does each machine appear twice, once normal and once uppercase?
Should AppleTalk be activated, or is it obsolete in OS X?
Comments
A basic setup useing appletalk over ip would be as follows.
Open /Applications/Utilities/Directory Access
Make sure AppleTalk has a tick next to it.
Open System Prefs. Click on Sharing. Make sure each mac has a different name say mac1,mac2,mac3 and that the Personal File Sharing is on.
Click on Network then click on Configure (for your built in ethernet)
Under tcpip, make sure each mac has its own ip address 10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2, 10.0.0.3 and share the same subnet mask 255.255.255.0. You don't need a router or dns currently.
Click on the AppleTalk tab and make sure than the Make AppleTalk Active is clicked.
You should now be able to see and share files between all 3 macs.
To test network connectivity open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and from the prompt type (leave out the $ though)
$ ping 10.0.0.1
$ ping 10.0.0.2
$ ping 10.0.0.3
You can ping yourself to make sure that your ethernet is working.
I think thats it.
Edit. Sorry I forgot the folder test.
Open a new finder window click on Network - Local and you should see the names of the 3 macs there (appletalk).
Dobby.
Originally posted by dobby
Okay.
A basic setup useing appletalk over ip would be as follows.
Open /Applications/Utilities/Directory Access
Make sure AppleTalk has a tick next to it.
Open System Prefs. Click on Sharing. Make sure each mac has a different name say mac1,mac2,mac3 and that the Personal File Sharing is on.
Click on Network then click on Configure (for your built in ethernet)
Under tcpip, make sure each mac has its own ip address 10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2, 10.0.0.3 and share the same subnet mask 255.255.255.0. You don't need a router or dns currently.
Click on the AppleTalk tab and make sure than the Make AppleTalk Active is clicked.
You should now be able to see and share files between all 3 macs.
To test network connectivity open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and from the prompt type (leave out the $ though)
$ ping 10.0.0.1
$ ping 10.0.0.2
$ ping 10.0.0.3
You can ping yourself to make sure that your ethernet is working.
I think thats it.
Edit. Sorry I forgot the folder test.
Open a new finder window click on Network - Local and you should see the names of the 3 macs there (appletalk).
Dobby.
Wow! Thanks for that! I'll try that tomorrow and let you know how I get on.
What you are looking to setup is filesharing, not networking. Many people mistakenly call this networking, but if you can surf the web from the computers, then that is already in place. There are a lot of reasons that people make this mistake, but it is a misnomer. details... details...
Here are the things you need to make sure of:
- You need to be connected to a network. Here we are talking about southing like ethernet or Airport. The computers must be able to see each other on this network, and there should not be a firewall preventing connections between them. To allow the computers to "discover" each other so you don't have to type in an address there should also not be a router between them.
- You need to go to System Preferences->Sharing->Services and make sure that "Personal File Sharing" is turned on. If you want to make your computer avalible to Windows computers you should also check the "Windows Sharing" box. If you have turned on the Firewall you should also make sure that the appropriate boxes are checked in the firewall open ports sections.
- If you will be sharing with computers using MacOS 8.6 or less (actually I think 8.6 is fine.. but this is overkill), then you need to make sure that AppleTalk is on. This is not necessary if all the computers are OS 9 or 10 (X). You can turn on Appletalk by going to System Preferences->Network->the appropriate network interface (ethernet, Airport, etc)->AppleTalk. Then you also need to turn AppleTalk in Directory Access if it is not already on (default is on). Once again if you will not be filesharing with OS 8.6 or earlier computers, or have some special reason to turn on AppleTalk, leave it off.
- Note: if you are not looking at sharing the files on your computer, but are mearly looking to get the files from other computers then you can skip the second point.
Now a few points that trip people up:Ideally this network should also have IP addresses assigned to every computer. With 10.3 Rendezvous can take care of this for you automatically, but lets keep it simple...
Simply click on it, and it will show you everything it has discovered. Either click on it once in column view and then click on "Connect", or Double click on the item in any other view. The rest should explain itself.