AirPort talking to Windows?

Bard

Quickie question...

In the new office I work in in my new job (yay!), we have a small Apple Mac network... a Cube, a PowerBook, an iMac (one of the new, standing up flatscreen jobbies) and an iBook. These are networked together using AirPort cards and an AirPort Base Station (which sits in our kitchen and is connected to an i-Stream Solo line - i.e.: 512Kbps DSL Internet shared wirelessly with all our machines). It's nice, isn't it?... for a small office, like...

One of the directors here is a serious Mac head - a major lover of Apple and their philosophy and style... and I can't say I disagree with him. The Cube that I'm using with it's flatscreen VDU and OS-X is WELL groovy and I'm quite comfy with it. Ok ... I admit it... they've (PRACTICALLY!) converted me!

Anyway... this guy would like us to remain a Mac only house if at all possible, but in practical reality - which is what we have to deal with, unfortunately - that's impossible as our resident architect needs to use AutoCAD - which is only properly supported on Windows based PC's. As this is the case, a Windows PC has found it's way onto a desk in our office but isn't able to use the network. Now, considering that he's using AutoCAD, it would be infinitely useful for this machine to be able to use the DSL connection that is currently shared (wirelessly) throughout the office.

One easy and relatively cheap and cheerful solution would be to get a mini-hub and a length of RJ-45 ethernet cable and use the hub to share the connection to the DSL modem between the PC and the Apple AirPort. ... but rather than lay cables around the place, we thought that surely there would be a wireless solution. The office is bright, airy and free from cables as it is.

So I'm asking for suggestions. I see quite a good possibility in the wireless products available from Buffalo Technology ( www.buffalotech.com ) and their "AirStation" PCMCIA card may just do the job, assuming it's compatible with the AirPort - and considering that they're both using the 802.11b standard, this is quite likely, I'd imagine. If at all possible, we'd like to stay wireless. We'd also like to be able to share resources and files between the PC and the Macs once the network connection IS established, so any suggestions re: software which could facilitate that would also be useful.

It's all a lot simpler than the length of this post portrays really... Anyone have any suggestions or comments?

timod

Haven't used it in reality, but according to apple:

"A PC with a Wi-Fi-certified IEEE 802.11b wireless card"

Airport itself supports up to 50 macs and PC's but you need at least one mac to set up the base station.

The buffalo gear should be fine.

ando

Originally posted by Bard
It's nice, isn't it?... for a small office, like...

yep its nice alright, very nice.. except the bit about having macs :cool:

timod

ooohhh..

I dare ya to continue that flame....

po0k

tjhat's nice allright

They all running OSX?

The base station, I'd assume acts like any other Wi-Fi one, it's not Mac specific, therfore you should be able to assign an IP and fire away, should have net aces at the very least, even if ye can't browse between the mac and PC network.

Givvus a shout on how it works out, i'd be interested from the point of view of GalwayWAN

Bard

Originally posted by SyxPak
tjhat's nice allright

They all running OSX?

All but the iBook, which runs OS9.2

The base station, I'd assume acts like any other Wi-Fi one, it's not Mac specific, therfore you should be able to assign an IP and fire away, should have net aces at the very least, even if ye can't browse between the mac and PC network.

Grand. Should be possible to share files etc., though... just have to use some 3rd party software for that.

Givvus a shout on how it works out, i'd be interested from the point of view of GalwayWAN

righty-o.

Hecate

OS X allows you to connect to windows shares using smb.

Go > Connect to server > then type smb://windows_box/share_name in the address field, and the share should appear on your desktop.

If you wanted a common file sharing system you could install samba on the OS X boxen which would allow them to appear as windows machines in the network neighbourhood of the windows box.

Theres a guide to all this sort of thing here.

spongebob

DAVE (Thursby.com) allows Macs into PC networks (Workgroup or Domain) and vice versa.

there is a prog nemed PC MACLAN as well.

Synkronite

Hey Bard,

I think it'd be worth your time looking at this..

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2000/07/13/magazine/airport_pc.html

Now my question..

Say I had a desktop PC running WinXP and an ibook - both with wireless cards able to talk to one another. Would it be possible for me to connect to the internet through the desktop's modem, and be able to share it with my ibook over the wireless network?

The article only seems to deal with a network where the internet connection is made thru the powerbook's modem and the thinkpad shares it over the wireless network.

Thanks

timod

XP has an internet sharing wizard. I know it can share an ethernet network with a modem connection, so I presume it can do the same with 802.11... but then again, being windoze, the wizards are a bit magical...