[bigsmoke07]

Hey all,

I'm hoping someone can give me a quick and efficient answer as to how to set up my small business (5 machines) in a total mac environment using a cable modem that needs to be shared and a network to share up to 10 mb files.

I'm thinking the shop would be a combination of laptops, imacs and a few power macs. I know as much to say I need an ethernet hub for the internal network, but would that solve my cable modem situation as well.

And will a cable modem be sufficient for moderate surfing needs?

can someone spec this out for me...is linksys a good router? What about netgear? I also will need to share a bw and laser printer, files back and forth and the internet connection.

It should be secure but not ridiculous...it's for a magazine publishing company. Thanks so much!!!

Oh, and per this thought, one of my art directors will prob. be using OS 9 on a new 15" PB (due to Photoshop, etc. )

[philm]

Originally posted by bigsmoke07:
I'm hoping someone can give me a quick and efficient answer as to how to set up my small business (5 machines) in a total mac environment using a cable modem that needs to be shared and a network to share up to 10 mb files.

If you have no networking already installed, what about a wireless network? Stick an Airport Extreme basestation into your cable modem, get airport cards for all your Macs....

[kennedy]

Issue #1: Can you run ethernet cable from your cable modem to each of the computers? If not, then you need to go with a wireless network. If so, then you need to decide whether you want to suffer some reduced speed (2x) to avoid the pain/expense of laying cables. Or if just some of the computers will be tough to wire, you can mix (some wired, some wireless).

I recommend Netgear over Linksys. Asante is also good... particularly if you have anything that wants to do AppleTalk.
Apple's AEBS is good but overpriced.

The basic setup is simple. The cable plugs into the modem... the modem plugs into the uplink port of the router. With only 5 machines, get a router that has 8 ports... that avoids the need for a switch. You want a Fast Ethernet (10/100) router and you want Cat 5e cabling. You then wire one cable from each port to each computer.

Your router will handled DHCP... and the default settings will work just fine. Your Macs will get their Network settings from the router when you plug them in and/or turn them on. Doesn't get much easier than that.

At that point, you'll have all your Macs able to access the Internet... with one caveat... you *might* need to connect to your router (per the instructions that come with your router) and set a few settings (per the instructions that came with your Cable modem... the addresses of DNS servers and what-not). Those might get set up automatically, depending upon your cable network provider.

There's many directions to go from there, but that gets you basic connectivity. For example, if your users sometimes move among Macs (like mine do), you could setup all your users on a designated server Mac, such that they can login to any computer on the network and their home directory shows up just the same. For that, getting Mac OS X Server is the easiest way to go. And many other things are possible as well.

Print serving will probably be your next question... and that answer will depend upon what kind of printers you want to provide (or already have).

[waffffffle]

Originally posted by kennedy:
The basic setup is simple. The cable plugs into the modem... the modem plugs into the uplink port of the router.

Watch this. On many routers (especially Linksys) the Uplink port is not for the cable modem. The cable modem should plug into the Internet or WAN port.

[bigsmoke07]

I love the idea, laying cables seems so old school, but I can't have anyone walk up to the office and steal all my files...is this being paranoid?

And opposed to you guys, who are being so helpful, is there an online networking tutorial someone can point me to?

yes, printing is the next step I need to know....color laser usb.

And why an 8 port router? When would I need a switch?

[kennedy]

Originally posted by bigsmoke07:
I love the idea, laying cables seems so old school, but I can't have anyone walk up to the office and steal all my files...is this being paranoid?

Paranoid is good in this case. A wireless network definitely makes it much easier for a hacker to do his thing... as he need not even get into your office. HOWEVER, a wireless network does not make you a completely open door either. But if you *can* lay wires, while old school, it will *always* provide the fastest network, the most reliable network, and the most secure network. Just not the most convenient or most flexbile.

yes, printing is the next step I need to know....color laser usb.

With USB printers that you can print to from OS X, the easiest way is to hook it to an OS X machine (like normal) and then turn on printer sharing on that machine. It will then show up (in a different color) on all other OS X machines. The one complexity is that the machine needs to be on, and in some (all?) cases, someone needs to be logged in (hopefully they fix that in Panther or an update).

And why an 8 port router? When would I need a switch?

Because you're starting with 5 machines... that gives you a little room for growth before you need that switch. Those 8 ports in your router *are* a switch... its just provided "free" as part of the router. You'll need a separate switch if:

1) you have more devices than ports on your router
2) you have some devices more than 150 ft from your router (the way the cable runs)
3) you want to setup a high-speed server accessed by your other machines (you'll want a switch with a Gigabit port for the server)


Brian

[cpac]

Originally posted by bigsmoke07:
but I can't have anyone walk up to the office and steal all my files...is this being paranoid?

You should be able to turn on sufficient security settings using Apple's airport to foil all but the most determined hacker. - There's an option to allow only certain MAC (not Mac) addresses onto the network - this seems to work very well for me (used in crowded apartment building to keep the neighbors from free loading).

You can also encrypt and password protect the network.

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As for online guides to networking - Apple has quite a few that are pretty good. Go look at their "Small Business" section and you'll find some nice guides. (The "Business" link is in the grey bar near the top of the main apple page)