[RoBrak]

I have a basic networking question concerning the connectivity of Macs running X and PC's (running Win 95). I have a small home ethernet network with three Macs and two PC's. My Internet connection currently is AOL via dial-up modem.

I connect to the PC's via MacOS X's SMB networking. My question is how do I maintain the PC connection(mounted volumes on the Mac's) and still have the my dial-up Internet connection going? Does X have built-in support for this or do I require additional SW or HW?

Also, to complicate the matter further, I am switching to DSL using Cisco 678 modem/router with a dynamic IP. How does this change the solution to the above listed problem?

Thanks

RB

[ 11-15-2001: Message edited by: RoBrak ]

[MacGorilla]

With a dial connection and your set up, life will be tough. Right now your best bet is Dave. Dave does alot of foot work for you. Check it out.

Now when you get the DSL router, life will be much, much easier. You don't need special software. You connect all your computers to the router via cat five cables. Now, all your computers can share the internet and you can easily mount windows volumes on your desktop via SMB or AppleTalk.

I would wait until you get the DSL router. It would make your life easier.

I have a further networking question. I have a mac running 10.1 and connected to my cable modem using an airport card. I also have a win2000 and win98se machine on same network. Can I connect the mac to my network for file sharing, or most of all, game playing? If so how?

Thanks

[darcybaston]

Troy, how is the Airport card connected to a cable modem? Is there a base station involved or did you really just mean Ethernet?

I'm curious as to why people choose routers instead of hubs. I've never had to use a router in my home networking, just a hub. What advantage does a router give?

Darcy

[rantweasel]

Originally posted by darcybaston:
<STRONG>Troy, how is the Airport card connected to a cable modem? Is there a base station involved or did you really just mean Ethernet?

I'm curious as to why people choose routers instead of hubs. I've never had to use a router in my home networking, just a hub. What advantage does a router give?

Darcy</STRONG>

Technically, most DSL "routers" and cable modem "routers" aren't routers. For Jane & Joe Consumer use, there is no need for a router, since you just have the ISP on one side and the home network on the other. You need a router when you have and intersection of more than two networks, and something at the intersection needs to direct traffic. This takes more hardware and software intelligence, and this is why the cheapest Cisco routers cost about an iBook, where a hub can be had for about $30 US. A switch is a plus (relative to a hub), because it is slightly more intelligent and rather than spewing all of it's traffic out every port, once it knows what port is associated with a given machine, it just sends traffic for that machine out that port. It's a more efficient use of bandwidth and can mean better performance. Really, for most people, a hub is fine, as the bottleneck will be at your DSL or cable modem.