[rich82fox]

hi

I want to network my 3 macs one being a blue & white powermac g3 and two tray loading imacs - and possibly share an internet connection between them

i have a powered Fast Ethernet 100Base-TX 8-port hub

is there anything else I need to network all the macs? how do I go about it?

rich

[chefpastry]

A cable/DSL router would make this very simple. Most come with built-in switches so you won't even need to use your 8 port hub. Setup depends on which router you purchase.

I know that OS X has the ability to share its internet connection, but I've never used it and I'm not sure how well it works.

[bradoesch]

You've got all the right equipment to network them. As for sharing an Internet connection it all depends on what type of connection you've got. Can you be more specific? Cable or DSL? If it's DSL, do you need to connect via PPPoE? If you had a router this wouldn't matter but since you're using a hub we need to know.

[ghporter]

I agree with the above. You need to be a bit more specific about your connection for detailed help. But here's what you basically need: a router of some kind to share the connection from your Internet modem. You can find them for relatively little money, and just about all of them will do what you want for handling any sort of broadband connection. The'll ALL handle sharing, as they have (all I've seen) built in switches that will handle all the computer to computer connections.

Note that hubs are typically slower than switches because they're "dumb" devices. Hubs basically connect the send pair of each port to the receive pairs of all the other ports, while switches intelligently send each packet only to its proper destination; what you get from this is an almost guaranteed lack of "collisions," which means that there won't be any traffic slowdowns for your network. And routers are just about as inexpensive as hubs now, so there's no reason to go with a hub at all.

[tooki]

Not "almost guaranteed", it's "guaranteed by definition"!

tooki

[rich82fox]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

You've got all the right equipment to network them. As for sharing an Internet connection it all depends on what type of connection you've got. Can you be more specific? Cable or DSL? If it's DSL, do you need to connect via PPPoE? If you had a router this wouldn't matter but since you're using a hub we need to know.

hi thanx for your post

It is DSL broadband and it does connect under ppp - as all of my connection details are under this tab

do I need to use crossed ethernet cables when conecting macs to the hub?

rich

[rich82fox]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

You've got all the right equipment to network them. As for sharing an Internet connection it all depends on what type of connection you've got. Can you be more specific? Cable or DSL? If it's DSL, do you need to connect via PPPoE? If you had a router this wouldn't matter but since you're using a hub we need to know.

hi thanx for your post

It is DSL broadband and it does connect under ppp - as all of my connection details are under this tab

do I need to use crossed ethernet cables when conecting macs to the hub?

rich

[rich82fox]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

You've got all the right equipment to network them. As for sharing an Internet connection it all depends on what type of connection you've got. Can you be more specific? Cable or DSL? If it's DSL, do you need to connect via PPPoE? If you had a router this wouldn't matter but since you're using a hub we need to know.

hi thanx for your post

It is DSL broadband and it does connect under ppp - as all of my connection details are under this tab

do I need to use crossed ethernet cables when conecting macs to the hub?

rich

[rich82fox]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

You've got all the right equipment to network them. As for sharing an Internet connection it all depends on what type of connection you've got. Can you be more specific? Cable or DSL? If it's DSL, do you need to connect via PPPoE? If you had a router this wouldn't matter but since you're using a hub we need to know.

hi thanx for your post

It is DSL broadband and it does connect under ppp - as all of my connection details are under this tab

do I need to use crossed ethernet cables when conecting macs to the hub?

rich

[bradoesch]

Originally Posted by rich82fox

hi thanx for your post

It is DSL broadband and it does connect under ppp - as all of my connection details are under this tab

do I need to use crossed ethernet cables when conecting macs to the hub?

rich

This will be slightly more complicated than using a router.

First of all, do you have any way of accessing your DSL modem via a web browser? Some can be accessed by typing in the modem's IP address into the location bar in a browser. The IP will likely look similar to 192.168.x.x. If you can do this, your DSL modem can possibly work as a router and this will make things much simpler.

The next step is a different approach and would be to assume PPPoE is optional on your connection, and plug the Macs into the regular ports on the hub using regular patch cables (not crossed cables, the regular (usually blue) kind) and plug the DSL modem into the hub's uplink port using the cable that came with the modem. If this setup works things will be much easier.

Let us know how that goes.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by tooki

Not "almost guaranteed", it's "guaranteed by definition"!

tooki

True, assuming the router and the computers keep up with DHCP leases properly. That one caveat bit me in the butt once, so now I hedge.

rich82fox, from your posts, I'm assuming you're saying that your computer is providing your username and password to log you into your DSL provider's network. I have yet to see a home/small office router that didn't handle PPPoE for you; you put your username/password info into the router and IT handles the whole thing. From that point on, your computers don't "connect to the Internet," they connect to a LAN which connects to the Internet. That frees up computer resources and makes the sharing part work. This is also another reason that a router is much preferable to a hub.

You will NOT need any crossover cables. Connecting from a "computer" device to a "non-computer" device requires straight patch cables. Crossover cables are typically used when connecting two "computer" devices or two "non-computer" devices. It's sort of like the difference between a USB A and USB B connector-one is for the computer and the other for the printer/scanner/etc. you're connecting to the computer.