[Zeno C]

Hello,
I have a PowerMac G4 with an internal Airport card.

Last week I installed Mac OS X Panther "Client" on that PowerMac and I managed to share my adsl internet connection (from Built-in Ethernet) to the Airport card simply starting the Internet Sharing service available in SystemPreferences->Sharing. Thus, my PowerBook could get the internet connection from the PowerMac via Airport.

Now I installed Mac OS X Panther "Server" on my PowerMac, but I cannot find a simple way to share my internet connection as I did under Panther "Client" since the "Internet" tab in SystemPreferences->Sharing is no more available.

Can anyone help ?

[Samanoske]

Sharing is in the Server Version within the Server Admin.app under NAT. You might as well have to change the Firewall settings.

[Zeno C]

yeah, but when I start the NAT service within the Server Admin application, I don't see the typical "Up Arrow" on the Airport status menu bar (showing that the internet sharing via Airport is actually ON)...in fact in my PowerBook I get no connection...

Also, the NAT service in ServerAdmin.app it's poorly configurable: I have only one pop-up menu to set ("Network connection to share:") and I cannot specify to which network port I want to share the connection (Airport, FireWire, second Built-in ethernet card...etc)

[Samanoske]

well - looked obvious - but after tryin to share my cable - didn't work right off the start

But finally, I just forgot to add the "router" in the DHCP option ... Et puis viola quoi ....

damn and I am about to help a friend of mine to set up an X server for his Internet Cafe - I said I'll be eazy and I took me 2h just to find out why I couldn't share the cable on my lan@home ...

[Zeno C]

Thanks samanoske, but I don't think you are in the same situation as me:
I want to share my adsl connection over Airport (the airport card in my PowerMac), and I think what you did is sharing your connection from the Built-in Ethernet to a Built-in Ethernet again (either the same or a second ethernet card), correct me if I'm wrong.

So in my situation, starting NAT from ServerAdmin.app doesn't seem to work because I don't get the typical icon (that you can see here: /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/AirPort.menu/Contents/Resources/AirPort_SWBS.tif) showing an airport network has actually been created; in fact in my PowerBook I get no network available (via the Airport menu extra..), and therefore, of course, no internet connection...

[Samanoske]

well you are right, but do you distribute the IP via DHCP with your Airport-Station to your pb ?

[Zeno C]

normally, under OS X Jag or Panther "Client", when you start the Internet Sharing service it automatically launches a dhcp server to distribute the IPs (in addition to the internet connection): when I had Panther "Client" on my PowerMac (before installing panther "server"), I simply had to start the Internet Sharing service (without touching any other network setting) and with my powerbook (with the Airport Network settings set to DHCP) I got the IP (10.0.2.2, or something like that) from the PowerMac AND the internet connection....

PLEASE, CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW THE HECK CAN I GET THIS FUNCTIONNALITY BACK ON PANTHER SERVER ??????

[Samanoske]

Its the same problem as I had with two ethernet cards - the only difference is the interface of your internal or external Network.

I am @_work right now so no Server around but - things you should check out:

System Prefs:
Your Airport network Interface should have a Manually defined IP like 10.0.0.1 (Do use 1 or 254 at the end - it will be the router address)

in ServerAdmin
DHCP is runnin on your internal Network interface. You should have then 10.0.x.x enabled as a part of your network and you should set up the network range within this internal network + Network Mask + Router Addy (see above)

Firewall is, although not declared as runnin by default launched at a high security level. Therefor you might flush the ipfw settings for testing purpose with "sudo ipfw flush" in the terminal.

finally, launch NAT

You can then if everything is working start up to build your firewall. Good settings can be found on the macosxhints page if you search for "Firewall Nat script server".

hope that helps

wonder why not the mods or anybody else gives you infos .. strange ..

[Zeno C]

thanks!

Now I'm @ work too.... so no OSX Server around

I'll try your tips as soon as I arrive at home...and I'll let you know...

thanks
zeno

[samthecat]

zeno...any luck with this? very interested in this for 10.3 server because 10.2 server did not support this. after days of trying, i talked with apple at the time, and the response was "too dangerous". would love it if it is available in 10.3.

cheers,

samthecat

[Zeno C]

Samanoske, I did everything you said in your last post, but there's no way to get it work.

I think there's a crucial problem and without solving it, it's useless to do all the other firewall/dhcp tricks...

the crucial problem is the NAT service in OSX Server seems not to be able to forward the connection via Airport, although it may forward it via a Built-In Ethernet interface. The result is that, in my PowerBook, when I click the Airport status menu extra, I canNOT even select a network to connect to !! So, here all those firewall or dhcp settings are a secondary problem...

This crucial problem is mainly caused by a lack of a more configurable GUI of the NAT service in ServerAdmin.app. I mean, if you look at the "Internet" tab in the Sharing panel (SystemPreferences) of OSX Panther Client, you'll see there're two important choices to do:

1) "Share your connection from:" (in my case here is "Built-in Ethernet")

AND

2) "To computers using:" (in my case here is "Airport")


Now, in the NAT section of the ServerAdmin.app (OSX Panther Server) I get only the first pop-up menu "Share your connection from:"; and that is the ONLY thing I can set up: there're NO OTHER settings to configure!!

So, how the heck can I tell this BASTARD ('cause at this point it really is) to share the connection "To computers using Airport"?