[chrisford]

Ahem.

This is a little embarassing...

I have a dual 450 g4 mac desktop and two 12" 1gHz Powerbooks (don't ask - long story involving desk / floor / damage). I use Airport to connect all three to t'interweb via a dLink wireless modem thing.

That works great.

But I want to be able to create a network between all three machines so I can read and write from any of the folders on one machine to any of the folders on the other machines.

Looking at Mac Help, it looks as tho' all I need to do is Create Network from the Airport menu. But when I do this (a) all I can see is the Drop box on each machine and (b) I lose my internet connection.

So just how stupid am I? Why can't I get this right? How come I work in IT, have used Macs since my pizzabox LC475 and actually offer internet consultancy to public sector clients?

Hangs head in shame. Any help very much appreciated. Especially if this help is in the form of a step-by-step Idiot Guide.

[John Strung]

I don't use Airport, so I am only guessing. Leave "create network" off. What you have to do is set up file sharing on each computer. How you do that depends on what systems(s) you are using. If you are not using OS X, then on each computer, make sure you are in Finder, click on the desktop, and pull down the Help menu to Mac OS Help. Search for "file sharing" and follow the instructions. Make sure AppleTalk is set to your Airport cards unless you have a wired connection to the Airport Base Station, in which case AppleTalk should be set to Ethernet.

[ghporter]

I think John is right. AirPort is just another networking medium to the operating system (in theory, anyway), so enabling file sharing on all of your computers should do what you want.

Unfortunately, wireless networking is not a private medium, so it's a good idea to turn on WEP encryption as well. Since all your machines are Macs, that makes setting it up much easier-no translating from one manufacturer's terminology to another's. Apple has lots of good information in their knowledge base on setting this up.

[bobbym]

This may or may not help. I was trying to do basically the same thing. I'm new to OS X. I was expecting it to work like earlier Mac OS's. Check out this from Apple Support:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106224
Apparently even with File Sharing turned on you can only access the Public Folder. I'm sure it's better security-wise, but it makes it more difficult for users who don't really need security between their own machines.

Sounds like if you buy Apple Remote Desktop, you can do what you want.

Bob

[chrisford]

Hi all -

Thanks for your help and responses with this - your advice is much appreciated. I have a (rudimentary) network going now. It's not quite as I expected it, but it's doing the job.

Thanks again!