[siluni]

I'm not getting this, and need some help doing what I thought would be a pretty basic network. Here's my network:

Cable modem connected to graphite ABS, connected to ethernet hub
iMac OSX 10.2 connected to ethernet hub (no airport card)
iBook OSX 10.2 with Airport card
Printer connected to iMac
iMac network prefs using built-in ethernet, DHCP, Appletalk on, personal and print sharing on.
Appletalk on on the iBook's airport setting.

While online with the iBook, I want to be able to file & print share via the iMac, but it doesn't work. I feel like I've tried every possible settings combination and have documented each configuration, but none of it works consistently.

iBook internet connection via airport & cable modem works fine. When online on the iBook and attempting to connect (via finder go to server), and specifying the afp:// connection as whatever shows in the iMac's sharing pref, I get either a 5000 error or a -36 error.

I don't need internet access for the iMac, although I understand how to configure the ethernet manually to get it via the cable modem if I need it, and have done it successfully.

When the cable modem is on, the iMac's IP is in the 169.x.x.x range; when the cable modem is on standby, the iMac's IP is in the 192.x.x.x range. I understand how these change each time, and I use whatever has been assigned to the iMac when trying to connect on the iBook.

I've not been able to connect from the iBook to the iMac with the cable modem on. I can sometimes connect to it when the cable modem is on standby (and the IP changes to the 192.x.x.x range), but not always. Sometimes it'll just time out, and sometimes nothing happens.

Am I asking this little network to do the impossible? It must be me. Also, why can't I connect to the iMac using it's afp://[computername].local? Yikes! a humble thank you one and all ...

[Tom N]

An Ip of 169.xxx.xxx.xxx means your computer is not receiving an IP from the server (probably your ABS). You mac is waiting for an IP assignment, once it times out without receiving it, it self assigns an IP in the 169 range.

The airport base station should be assigning IPs regradless if you have an Internet connection or not. My guess is the ABS is not configured correctly. Make sure the ABS WAN port is connected to your cable modem, and that you have the ABS set to be used as your DHCP source. Also, since the hub is doing nothing, try connnecting the iMac directly to the ABS. Once you get everything working you can add the hub back in if you should need it.

Tom N.

[siluni]

Tom, I appreciate this info, but you missed that I have a graphite ABS, not a snow with a WAN port. There's no way to have the cable modem hooked to ABS via ethernet and connect the iMac via ethernet to the graphite ABS.

Perhaps the network I want won't work without the snow ABS, but I dream on ....

[Stogieman]

Originally posted by siluni:
There's no way to have the cable modem hooked to ABS via ethernet and connect the iMac via ethernet to the graphite ABS.

Perhaps the network I want won't work without the snow ABS, but I dream on ....

I had the same problem as you siluni but I finally got everything to work.
Here's my setup:

- DSL Router/hub connected to my DSL modem so I can share my internet connection.
- Connected to the router is my iMac DVSE, PowerMac 6100 and my graphite ABS
- Ti 800 connects via Airport

With this setup, I'm finally able to do file sharing between all three computers and USB printer sharing between the iMac and Powerbook.

Open up your AirPort Admin Utility and select the network tab. Make sure "AirPort to ethernet bridge" is selected and "Distribute IP Addresses" deselected. The trick is to check the ethernet bridge box before deselecting the distribute IP addresses. As you can see below, ethernet bridging will be grayed out.

[siluni]

Now that was really helpful, thank you, Stogieman. The only problem I have with turning on the Ethernet bridging option is the warning that comes up about interferring with network operations. You have it turned on and your DSL provider hasn't come knocking on your door ... I should just do it, eh? It's not that serious a warning?

[siluni]

I tried it, but essentially turning off Distribute IP addresses and turning on Enable Airport to Ethernet bridging is just a toggle between the two services, file/print sharing and Internet access.

I'd like to have Internet access on my iBook via Airport but also file/print sharing with the iMac at the same time, and no Internet access for the iMac.

Did I miss something in your instructions, Stogieman?

[Stogieman]

Were you still getting a 5000 error or a -36 error whenever you tried to connect to the iMac after checking the AirPort to Ethernet bridge box?

I remember getting those errors when I first got my ABS. I was able to log onto the internet with my powerbook without any problems but wasn't able to network with the iMac until I had ethernet bridge checked. And even then I could only log onto the iMac (OS 10.1) and not the 6100 (OS 9.2). I thought that was very strange. File sharing went as follows:
iMac to 6100 - OK
iMac to Powerbook - OK
6100 to Powerbook - couldn't find one another on the network.

When Jaguar came out, I wanted to share my HP 950c between my iMac and TiBook. I did everything you mentioned on your first post, updated the drivers on both computers, checked every possible network & print center setting, ect. Nothing worked until I came across Apple's wonderful PDF Designing Airport for OS X. On page 43, it discusses enternet bridging and there I learned I should have "distribute IP addresses" checked off. Once I did that, I was able to share my USB printer between my TiBook and iMac and do file sharing between my TiBook and 6100. (Killed 2 birds with one stone.)

Anyways enough about that (sorry I've been babbling on). I a little confused about your setup, is your ethernet hub acting as a DHCP server and distributing the IP addresses among your computers?

[siluni]

Stogieman, I really appreciate the time you're taking with this thread.

I have no problem with sharing between the iBook and iMac with the ethernet bridge turned on. My dilemma is that at the same time I'm sharing, I want internet access (via airport--> cable modem) on my iBook. I initiate the file/print sharing from the iBook to the iMac.

Have you been able to have both file/print sharing and Internet access at the same time?

To answer your question about ethernet hub/DHCP ... I don't believe the hub is the DHCP server. Aren't the addresses coming from the ABS?

thanks much ...

[serranot]

Hello,

I can't picture how you have the cable modem connected to the ABS, and then have the ABS connected to the hub. If memory serves, there is no LAN port on the ABS. So how did you hook that up? I apologize if my question seems simple.

For the situation you describe, it would seem that you would need to have a cable modem hook to a router, then hook the imac and the ABS to the router. I admittedly don't know much about networking, but I don't think you can accomplish the mission with a hub.

[tooki]

It sounds to me like if the Base Station might be acting as a DHCP server on its ethernet port -- which it shouldn't! (That would conflict with the cable modem's DHCP, which might explain why the iMac can grab an IP only when the cable modem is off). Be sure the "enable DHCP on ethernet" checkbox is not checked in the Airport Admin utility.

So, what you need to do is manually assign the iMac an IP address from the range provided by the Base Station (10.0.0.x unless you changed it). So, for example, if your iBook's TCP/IP settings are

IP: 192.168.0.5
Router: 192.168.0.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Then set the iMac to

IP: 192.168.0.128 (change the last octet to something high, outside the range the Base Station is set to share with DHCP)
Router: 192.168.0.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
DNS: 192.168.0.1 (or if you know them, the ISP's DNS server IPs).

That should do it.

tooki

[tooki]

P.S. For reference:

192.168.x.x (not 192.x.x.x) is one of several "internal" IP address ranges. Apple usually uses the 10.x.x.x range by default.

169.254.x.x (not 169.x.x.x) is the range for "ad hoc" networking when a DHCP server is unavailable.

[siluni]

Thanks Tooki. Configuring the iMac manually over Ethernet using a 10.x.x.x range is very familiar. It's the configuration I use when I need to occasionally connect the iMac to the Internet. When I don't need to, I revert the iMac's configuration to Ethernet/DCHP.

I should mention that I"ve never had the Enable DHCP on Ethernet option in Airport Admin Utility turned on.

Cable modem --> ABS ---> Ethernet hub (cable plugged into uplink port on hub) --> Ethernet cable to iMac. iBook connects via Airport. Wait, it's not the uplink port on the hub that's the problem, is it?

ABS has only Distribute IP addresses and share IP addresses with Ethernet clients using DHCP and NAT. No other options are on.

Internet connection is fine on iBook. Personal file sharing is on on the iMac.

On the iBook and while online, if I choose Connect to Server, and type in afp://10.0.x.x [the manually entered IP address for the iMac which is also the address showing to use in the iMac's sharing preferences], I can't connect. And I get a -1028 error.

Argh ...
Help
Thank you

[siluni]

Sometimes it's our perceptions of how we think something should work that get in the way ... I thought I had to have internet access to the iMac configured OFF to make file sharing to the iMac work.

Internet and file sharing work simultaneously by configuring the iMac network ethernet manually with a 10.x.x.x range, and adding to the Airport Admin the enable airport to ethernet bridge.

The value of MacNN is getting other perspectives to see the solution more clearly. Thanks everyone. I love it here.