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Ghoser777 · Jun 19, 2004, 11:35 PM

Okay - here's my situation. I have a wireless router (Belkin) serving out my broadband connection currently. I am about to pick up some old machines on the cheap, and would like to connect them to the router without getting them all airport cards. Instead, is their a devices that would connect to my wirelss router and allow my other computers to connect to the device over ethernet?

Thanks,
Matt Fahrenbacher

C-Eye · Jun 20, 2004, 01:13 AM

I think what you're looking for is a wireless ethernet bridge. This allows you to connect any device with a standard ethernet cable to a wireless network. I have this one from D-Link and it works great with an older iMac that can't use a airport card. Netgear and Linksys make them too, but you don't necessarily have to get the same brand as your router.

John Strung · Jun 20, 2004, 08:47 AM

If the other computers have ethernet cards, just connect them directl to the ethernet ports of the Belkin. If you run out of ports, uplink the Belkin to a hub or switch.

Ghoser777 · Jun 20, 2004, 10:23 PM

The wireless bridge is what I'm looking for. My router and my three other machines are going to be in completely different places (and that location could change) so I don't want to have to run a bunch of ethernet wire.

From my limited understanding of networking, it seems like I would need:

1 wireless bridge
1 additional router

Or is this a case where I would need a switch? I never really understood the difference (networking has never been my forte).

Thanks,
Matt Fahrenbacher

John Strung · Jun 21, 2004, 09:23 AM

If the old Macs are close enough to be hardwired to a single hub or switch, all you need is the wireless-to-ethernet bridge. The bridge connects to the hub or switch and then all computers wired to the hub or switch connect wirelessly to the wireless router through the bridge.

I would recommend either the LinkSys WET11 (802.11b) or the LinkSys WET54G (802.11g).

Ghoser777 · Jun 21, 2004, 09:54 AM

Okay, I know of one thing I can do, but here's another question I have:

I have my powerbook hooked up to the wireless network and it's going to be with in arms length of the new machines. Could I use my powerbook as a wireless-to-ethernet bridge (puttin a switch between the laptop and three three computers)?

Just wondering,
Matt Fahrenbacher

John Strung · Jun 21, 2004, 10:42 AM

I believe you could by using Apple's built in internet connection sharing, but that would be a kind of kludgy solution and would require your PB to be on whenever you want to use the internet with one of the old computers.

Ghoser777 · Jun 21, 2004, 10:54 AM

That's fine - these are just old test machines. When my powerbook's not home, I won't be either!

And just for clairty (so I don't buy the wrong stuff), I would use a switch, not a router, right?

Matt Fahrenbacher

John Strung · Jun 21, 2004, 10:57 AM

Yes. A hub or a switch. Not a router.

Ghoser777 · Jun 21, 2004, 04:55 PM

Okay, here's my update on the situation:

I have a cable modem that is hooked up to a Belkin Wireless router. My powerbook is connected over airport to the wireless router. I know have ethernet running between my powerbook and an iMac, both running 10.3. (I left the switch out of the mix to keep everything simple). I've tried making the ethernet cable into a crossover cable, but the results have always been the same.

My results:

On the powerbook: I go to the Sharing panel, Internet tab, and turn on Internet Sharing over ethernet.

On the iMac: I go to the Network panel and see that I have thre green light over ethernet - I should be connected. I even get a valid ip address (192.168.2.*).

My iMac will not connect to the internet. If I turn off internet sharing and turn on file sharing, my powerbook and my iMac can communicate. Having both on seems to cause problems (my powerbook started to lock up). When I go to my wireless router's web config pages, it doesn't list my iMac in the DHCP client list. Grrr...

Is there a problem with having my powerbook connected to a router and then acting as a router itself?

Thanks,
Matt Fahrenbacher

John Strung · Jun 21, 2004, 05:51 PM

Try putting your ISP's primary and secondary DNS IP addresses on separate lines in the Name Server Addr box of the iMac's TCP/IP control panel (if it is running OS 9) or in the Domain Name Server box of the Network prefs panel (if you are running OS X).

Ghoser777 · Jun 21, 2004, 06:48 PM

Okay, my isp is comcast.com and my dns names I entered were

206.228.179.10
144.228.254.10

which I got from WHOIS.

Still no change

My subnet and router address on my iMac matches the subnet and router addresson my powerbook exactly... so I'm a little confused.

Thanks for all your help,
Matt Fahrenbacher

John Strung · Jun 21, 2004, 07:43 PM

What happens when you type http://64.233.167.104 into your browser on the iMac?

Ghoser777 · Jun 21, 2004, 07:52 PM

That's just google right? I can't ping anything by ip or hostname on the iMac. It just times out after 60 seconds in Safari (the google ip).

I even tried ssh'ing into my powerbook (192.168.2.*) from the iMac and it doesn't get through. The Network preferences swear there is an internet connection...

Matt Fahrenbacher

Ghoser777 · 11:47 PM

Nevermind... I'm still playing.

Matt Fahrenbacher