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saturnbill · Jun 22, 2004, 01:41 PM

I have been wanting to set up a home network with 2 Mac's and a PC. In reading many of the forums in regards to Networking, wireless seems to be a great source of problems for most people, especially when you try to mix PC and Mac. And in trying to share a printer on this wireless, I think, leaves me with only Apple Extreem with USB. In reading a article recently about networking, it mentioned another option - Powerline networking, Corinex to be exact. This uses the power lines in your home to transmit the signal from each computer to the router, eliminating the tedium of running Cat5 cables. Has anyone here used these or are familier with them? It sounds like a great idea and more secure than wireless and for the use I need would not be much more than buying Belkin/Netgear, etc and a wireless card for the PC. Also wondering about sharing a USB printer on this network between my two Macs - G4 MDD and my daughters FlowerPower iMac 600. Any problems setting up Printer sharing between OS9.2 (iMac) and OS 10.2.x
Suggestions?

Macola · Jun 22, 2004, 03:13 PM

What kind of problems do you anticipate with wireless networking? Just IMO, but I would think wireless would be a much better way to go than Powerline.

saturnbill · Jun 23, 2004, 08:58 AM

At work I am used to everything being hardwired in the network and seems to work well. But in reading the comments on various sites about the problems associated with wireless, I am less than enthused about going that way. It is the cheapest and most common connection method though, it seems. But I am confused by what product is best (I always do a ton of research) for the Mac/PC integration that I need. The PC will be downstairs about 25 linear feet from the upstairs connection/router, which I do not think is that bad. And my daughters iMac is next door to the connection. It seems that most people say "buy whatever is cheap and spend the time making it work". I would need a router at the cable end, a wireless PCI card for the PC, and something cheap for the iMac. I would like to be able to share printing to the USB printer on the G4 at the main cable connection end, by both Macs upstairs. Help!

Macola · Jun 23, 2004, 09:08 AM

The wireless networking protocol itself is independent of whether you have a Mac or PC. Whatever problems you anticipate in getting Macs and PCs to "talk" to each other will still be there, regardless of how they are physically networked.

I don't agree that the cheapest is the best. Just buy a good name-brand wireless router that includes a 4-port switch for future expansion of wired connections (Netgear, Linksys, SMC are some that I've used for my clients). Then get a PCI card for your PC (again, a good brand). Get an Airport card for your iMac, and I assume your G4 will have a wired connection. It should take you less than 30 minutes to get everything set up.

If you're running Panther on the G4, just set up the printer as a shared printer, and you should see it on the other Macs.

saturnbill · Jun 23, 2004, 10:57 AM

Thanks Macola,

The higher speed wireless seems to be the best bet overall for speed and the future. Powerline has a max of 14 Mbs which I guess should be sufficient for most needs. Wireless is more proven and has more years of use. Because of the proximity of the Imac, I may connect it with cat5 to the wireless router. Cheapest solution and faster to share files between Macs.
Are there any problems using OS9.2 on the iMac, and 10.2.8 on my G4?
The same goes with printer sharing. Is Jaguar compatible also?
Thanks for any information.

tooki · Jun 23, 2004, 02:57 PM

Printer sharing among OS X 10.2-10.3 Macs (and PCs) works seamlessly. Printer sharing between 10.2 and Mac OS 9 does not readily work. (I believe it can be done if the printer is connected to the OS 9 Mac.) Printer sharing from 10.3 and OS 9 works great: 10.3 presents the printer to OS 9 as a generic PostScript printer, so it just works.

So, if the printer is connected to [A], then machines running [B] can print:

A: Mac OS 9, then B: Mac OS 9, maybe OS X 10.2-10.3, maybe others
A: Mac OS X 10.2, then B: OS X 10.2, OS X 10.3, PCs, Linux, UNIX
A: Mac OS X 10.3, then B: OS X 10.2, OS X 10.3, PCs, Linux, UNIX, Mac OS 9
A: PC, then B: OS X 10.2, OS X 10.3, PCs, Linux, UNIX

Note also that a network print server, such as the USB port on Apple's base stations, behaves basically the same as a printer connected to a 10.2 Mac.

tooki

saturnbill · Jun 25, 2004, 01:15 PM

Thanks tooki,

That answers most of my questions. It seems that I need to upgrade the OS on my iMac if I want to keep from buying a print server. But I would have to pay $129 to update the old iMac when my G4 is still running 10.2.8. I know that I can pay $199 and get the Family Pack, but 10.4 will be due out soon and I don't think I want to upgrade yet. Am I able to use the system install disk that came with my G4 and install that on my iMac? I take it that I would have to format the disk to do this? Any suggestions?