Need a way to convert from Ethernet to WiFi

On Sep 30, 2007, at 10:57, David Weintraub wrote:
> So, what is the best way to connect the old Cube to our network?
>
> * Ethernet cable run from the router and somehow upstairs.
> * USB to Ethernet connector (remember the Cube has USB 1.1 and we run
> 802.11G)
> * Ethernet to WiFi connector (Looks like about $80)
> * Some combination of Ethernet to X10 to Ethernet connectivity.

An ethernet cable would be the fastest connection as well as the
cheapest one . . . as long as running the cable doesn't get
problematic. Otherwise . . . IIRC you can set up an Airport Express
to bridge from your wireless network to an ethernet cable to the Cube.

Using an Airport Express as a wireless bridge (using WDS) is probably
the easiest to setup. I've done this for my mother in law when the
airport card died in her first gen Mac Mini. It was certainly a lot
easier than cracking open the Mini to replace the card. ($20 more
expensive than your ethernet to WiFi, which I am assuming is a
similar solution, but the ease of setting up WDS was worth it IMHO.)

Too bad the Mini is USB1.1 Other wise something like this: http://
quickertek.com/products/nano.php would have been even easier.

Tomoharu

I wouldn't recommend USB to wifi. If only because you are dependent on 3rd party drivers for network access.

A wifi-ethernet bridge shouldn't cost $80. Linksys WET11 should work. There were a range of these types of bridges released for the gaming market, when people wanted to integrate their original XBoxes, and PS2 machines to the home wifi. If they are configurable by browser, then those should work.

You do have to make sure they support WPA, or whatever password system you are using. The one I got (name escapes me), only supported WEP.

Using the Airport range of products will only work via WDS, which means the original router needs to be of a similar chipset (or Airport products as well). Wifi-ethernet bridges are more versatile.

On Sep 30, 2007, at 7:57 AM, David Weintraub wrote:

> * Ethernet to WiFi connector (Looks like about $80)

This would be the option I'd recommend. You should be able to find
one of these for less than $80, though. Both Amazon and Newegg, for
instance, sell the Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP for $58 shipped. If you want
to spend even less and don't mind the geeky route, you could get buy
the WHR-G125 for $40, install DD-WRT on it, and run it in client mode
or as a WDS node.

On Sep 30, 2007, at 10:57 AM, David Weintraub wrote:

> The long saga of my old Mac Cube has been solved. My son wants it as
> his desktop system. However, there is a slight problem. The Cube's
> Airport connection doesn't work. We tried what were suppose to be
> good cards, but none of them worked. That wasn't a problem when the
> Cube was sitting at my desk only a foot or so away from the router,
> but now the Cube will be upstairs.
>
> So, what is the best way to connect the old Cube to our network?

Problem solved!

My son took the router, Airport hub, and cable modem out of my office
downstairs and setup everything upstairs. My office is sans Airport
hub, cable modem, and router which means I have less clutter and more
outlets. It also means I connect over Airport with everyone else
instead of an unshared wired Ethernet connected to a router port that
was configured to give me priority over the other ports.

My son also got the Cube setup to share the HOME directories of the
Mac Mini downstairs. Now, you can log into either computer and see
the same desktop, files, email, iTunes library, and even Safari
bookmarks. That way, if the computer downstairs is being used, you
can run upstairs and log into your email.

It's actually a pretty cool setup.

David Weintraub

how about moving into a smaller house? big houses are a blight upon civilization. how about we limit the size of our homes to those that can be served by one AirPort Base Station?



[Honey, we have to move - wireless reception in the far bedroom is kinda weak. :-) -Adam]

On 2-Oct-2007, at 04:09, David Weintraub wrote:
> My son also got the Cube setup to share the HOME directories of the
> Mac Mini downstairs.

OK, want details on how he managed to do this. Or are you running
OSX Server on anything?

I really want to have shared $HOME for my LAN, but everything I've
read on it is either written about OS X Server, written about OS X
with a linux server, or is so opaque as to border on intentional
obfuscation.

On Oct 2, 2007, at 17:58, Google Kreme wrote:

>
> OK, want details on how he managed to do this. Or are you running
> OSX Server on anything?
>
> I really want to have shared $HOME for my LAN, but everything I've
> read on it is either written about OS X Server, written about OS X
> with a linux server, or is so opaque as to border on intentional
> obfuscation.

There are a couple of articles at macosxhints.com and afp548.com that
discuss how to share home directories off of a client version of
Tiger. You'll have to roll your own Open Directory installation first
though . . . nad you're right, it gets pretty technical pretty fast.
In addition; it's totally unsupported by Apple . . . which isn't a
big deal except you need to be really careful about installing any OS
updates.

I'm actually considering getting a copy of Leopard Server once it
ships and replacing my current (2) servers . . . both are gray G4's
with one being file and one being a web server. I'm planning on
either moving both to a mini that I inherited during a company
buyout . . . the alternative solution I'm also considering is getting
an account at dreamhost or somewhere for my web server.

On Oct 2, 2007, at 1:02 PM, Google Kreme wrote:

> On 2-Oct-2007, at 04:09, David Weintraub wrote:
>> My son also got the Cube setup to share the HOME directories of the
>> Mac Mini downstairs.
>
> OK, want details on how he managed to do this. Or are you running
> OSX Server on anything?

He went into NetInfo manager and created a static automount point for
the drive he wanted to mount. Then he changed the HOME directory in
the NetInfo manager to point to that drive instead of /Users/<Name>.

Documentation of the NetInfo Manager itself can be found at: http://
www.apple.com/server/pdfs/UnderstandingUsingNetInfo.pdf

Documentation on setting up an automount can be found here: http://
www.bombich.com/mactips/automount.html

I've done this using NIS, but never with NetInfo. My son has time off
from school, so he had all day to work on it. I'll see if I can get
exact instructions from him.

David Weintraub

On 2-Oct-2007, at 22:18, David Weintraub wrote:
> He went into NetInfo manager and created a static automount point
> for the drive he wanted to mount. Then he changed the HOME
> directory in the NetInfo manager to point to that drive instead of /
> Users/<Name>.

Ah, darn. I was hoping he'd done the whole mobile home thing.

I'm late to commenting on this and I was going through jet lag in the
early part of the discussion. Please excuse me if I'm supplying the
right answer to the wrong question. I understand this is a bridging issue.

A couple of years ago I wanted to connect an iMac CRT rev C in the far
corner of the house to the Internet using WiFi. You might remember the
early iMacs came with no Ethernet. I tried at least 4 different products
including a USB converter (produced kernel panics), and game adapters by
two different manufacturers including LinkSys. The first game adapter
didn't work at all and I could never configure the LinkSys because the
product would automatically connect to my neighbor's WiFi and wouldn't
let me access the web-based configuration panel. I'm sure LinkSys
thought this was a feature.

Eventually I came to my senses and picked up an additional refurb/
restock AirPort Express to join our network. The Express costs more than
game adapters but the unit is incredibly easy to configure and gives me
lots of versatility the adapters don't. If I didn't control the computer
password, my son would waste immeasurable amounts of time playing Star
Craft on the old iMac with faceless opponents around the planet. I use
AirPort Express units for a base station, a bridge between WiFi and
Ethernet, and to connect a printer to the network. The latter unit is
also configured for AirTunes.

Adam, don't worry about your son having no interest in computers at this
point. Neither did my son until I introduced him to Star Craft when he
was about 12. I created a monster. At 17 he can now waste incredible
amounts of time on Star Craft, Myspace, online music, chat and email.

- Hank

At 3:51 AM -0700 2007/10/07, Hank Harken wrote:
>A couple of years ago I wanted to connect an iMac CRT rev C in the far
>corner of the house to the Internet using WiFi. You might remember the
>early iMacs came with no Ethernet.

        10/100 Ethernet was standard on the very first iMac as I recall.
They did not however have the ability to have a wireless Airport card
installed until a few versions later. The original Airport card is now a
bit hard to come by as the underlying mechanism is no longer being made by
anyone.

        Some USB wireless devices (b/g/ and even /n!) out there do have Mac
OS X drivers but one has to be sure one is getting the correct model and
version of the hardware in order for the drivers to work properly.


--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

Dan Baum wrote:
> how about moving into a smaller house? big houses are a blight upon
> civilization. how about we limit the size of our homes to those that
> can be served by one AirPort Base Station?
>
Perversely I've found that small energy efficient "modern" style houses can be more problematic than more traditional "sprawl" designs. Pack all the "core" things into a smaller space and you have much more blocking of radio signals per square foot. I'm talking about wiring, HVAC, appliances, etc... Add to that more use of masonry, metal roofs (which can really limit antenna placement), foil backed insulation, etc... and you're better at times laying wire across the floor.

A friend who had remodeled a 900 square foot house was complaining that his sister in an apartment across the street could no long share his wireless signal. When I stopped by I asked him just when he had put on the metal roof. About the time the wireless signal stopped making it more than a few feet outside of the house it turns out. See he kept the router in the attic and with the new roof had basically created a dish antenna pointed straight down. I told him if he wanted to dig a hole under his house he could likely get a good signal 1000' or more going straight down. :)

David Ross

 j-beda gently corrected what I wrote...

>At 3:51 AM -0700 2007/10/07, Hank Harken wrote:
>>A couple of years ago I wanted to connect an iMac CRT rev C in the far
>>corner of the house to the Internet using WiFi. You might remember the
>>early iMacs came with no Ethernet.

>        10/100 Ethernet was standard on the very first iMac as I recall.
>They did not however have the ability to have a wireless Airport card
>installed until a few versions later. The original Airport card is now a
>bit hard to come by as the underlying mechanism is no longer being made by
>anyone.

You're absolutely correct. In my jetlag clouded condition I meant to say
that the first 2 or 3 versions of the iMac had no wireless. I added
wireless to my iMac rev C (Blueberry - that's important - smile) by
using the AirPort Express as a bridge. I connected the Ethernet port on
the iMac to the AP Express.

>        Some USB wireless devices (b/g/ and even /n!) out there do have Mac
>OS X drivers but one has to be sure one is getting the correct model and
>version of the hardware in order for the drivers to work properly.

Yes, I had kernel panics with the one I tried.

thanks for correcting me.

Hank Harken