[TwinFeats]

I have 2 iMacs and a cable modem I'd like to share. Typically this type of setup would require a Mac with 2 ethernet cards, one for the cable modem and one to go to the hub where the other Mac would be connected. However the iMac only has 1 ethernet card built in. I've seen USB ethernet adapters but none that have Mac drivers/support listed. Anyone else try to setup this type of network before? Thanks...

Kent

First, you need to get a unique IP address for each iMac from your ISP. If they are willing to do this, it becomes easy to get everything working.

Buy a 4 port Ethernet hub (a 10BaseT hub goes for $50 or so). Plug your cable modem into it. Then, plug your iMacs into the hub. Configure both machines with the IP settings provided by your ISP. Both machines should now be able to surf.

If the ISP will only give you one IP address, it IS possible to still do this. However, it requires a 3rd machine to act as a "gateway" between the ISP and your little network. You also need a copy of a program called IPNetRouter to run on this 3rd machine to manage the system. I have such a system running myself, using an old Quadra 840AV. Works great.

Chris

[TwinFeats]

I have an Ethernet hub already, but if I even connect 1 iMac to it and the cable modem as well, the computer doesn't "see" the cable modem. I assume I simply have to have the cable modem directly on the iMac, which means I need something like an USB ethernet adaptor. USBStuff told me that apple is supposed to have one in "weeks rather than months" but that is all the details I've received so far...

There is a software soultion:
IPNetRouter by http://www.sustworks.com/
It will let you use on e IP address with one cable modem. The only backdraw is that the iMac running IPNetRouter have to be running all the time. If you have an old PC collecting dust you can set up linux on it and run the internal IP masqurauding to do the same thing.
I'm planning to do the same thing at home with a PC and a Mac so I'm looking for different options. The equivalent for windows is IPRoute by http://www.mischler.com/.
In your case I'd try a demo of IPNetRouter first since you only need to hook the iMacs together in a ethernet which a assume you alread have done.

[TwinFeats]

Well, that's not quite true. Software like IPNetRouter works great for this sort of thing except for 1 little problem - the server machine must have 2 ethernet ports, one to connect to the cable modem and one to connect to the hub. My problem is that I have 2 iMacs, so I need to use one of the USB ports (I have a 7 port USB hub) for ethernet via a USB ethernet adapator cable. However there is no software driver for the Mac for the USB ethernet adaptors, that's why I'm still waiting...unless I'm wrong on how this must be configured. A couple of people have told me to just connect the two iMacs and the cable modem to the ethernet hub but that doesn't seem to work, as I said before I've tried connecting just one of my iMacs and the cable modem to the ethernet hub and the computer does not see the cable modem.

Is your cable modem connected to the uplink port on your ethernet hub? If not, you will need to use an ethernet crossover cable to get the communication between your iMac and cable modem. I have my cable modem connected to the uplink port with no problems.

[TwinFeats]

Right, the good people at Ask Dr. Farallon got back to me with the details on how to set up this sort of home LAN. The cable modem can connect with a standard cable to the uplink port on the hub or with a crossover cable to a normal hub port. I downloaded IPNetRouter and followed the instructions, works great!