Helps with networking (bitches)

[Thompy]

So having passed the activation day for our broadband, BT informed us there was a problem with our line at the exchange and it would be done the next day. Two days later still no broadband so we phoned them to find the the problem is more complex and it will take another two weeks

We have internet at the moment via a BT wifi hotspot, free of charge with our account. Trouble is I don't have a wireless card and don't really want to buy one just for this. Here is what I hope is possible but can't figure out with my measly networks skillz:

Mac with wifi connected to hot spot -> share internet over wifi to BT home hub -> share internet from home hub through ethernet to my PC.

Make solution go now!

[buzzmong]

Oh, Internet Connection Sharing aka ICS. This be how it is in Win 7 using the Windows machine as the host, but I've no idea how to go about it on the Mac.

Edits: Apparently, quite easily: http://lifehacker.com/283088/share-your ... wirelessly

[Thompy]

I've ticked all the right things on the Mac as far as I can tell. But I think I'd have to connect my PC directly to the Mac via ethernet. I was hoping it would share to the router, and then to my PC from that. As it is the router and PC are oblivious.

Edit: I think there is only the option for direct connections so not possible natively, but if anyone has suggestions for programs and whatnot it's appreciated.

[buzzmong]

I've ticked all the right things on the Mac as far as I can tell. But I think I'd have to connect my PC directly to the Mac via ethernet. I was hoping it would share to the router, and then to my PC from that. As it is the router and PC are oblivious.

Edit: I think there is only the option for direct connections so not possible natively, but if anyone has suggestions for programs and whatnot it's appreciated.

Well, fundamentally, there's no difference on the logicial side between an ethernet cable and a wifi link, so it should work. Have you rebooted everything yet?

[Thompy]

The problem is with the Mac's sharing settings. You can choose to:

a) share connection from wifi (e.g. a hotspot) to computers connected directly with ethernet.
b) share connection from ethernet (e.g. adsl router) to computers connected directly with wifi.

What I want to do is c) share connection from wifi hotspot back over the wifi network, using the router as a middle man, an option that doesn't exist for a reason I can't fathom.

I'm not hopeful

[Dog Pants]

Do you have any jam?

[buzzmong]

The problem is with the Mac's sharing settings. You can choose to:

a) share connection from wifi (e.g. a hotspot) to computers connected directly with ethernet.
b) share connection from ethernet (e.g. adsl router) to computers connected directly with wifi.

What I want to do is c) share connection from wifi hotspot back over the wifi network, using the router as a middle man, an option that doesn't exist for a reason I can't fathom.

I'm not hopeful

Can you not connect your Mac to the homehub via ethernet then?

[ProfHawking]

Sorry, but I think you won't be able to do that with a consumer adsl router. They are designed to get the Internet from the phone line port and not from the LAN side of it (ethernet and wifi connections).
You are probably stuck using your mac as he router. And as it's wifi connection is one connection, i doubt it could be connected to the by hotspot and also anything else at the same time.
Time to run an ethernet cable to the pc, or buy it a wifi card/dongle. (which you can pick up for less than a fiver btw).

[buzzmong]

Sorry, but I think you won't be able to do that with a consumer adsl router. They are designed to get the Internet from the phone line port and not from the LAN side of it (ethernet and wifi connections).

Just to point out Prof, BT do the same as Virgin now, they supply seperate modems and routers. They essentially supply a rebranded ADSL modem (ie, expecting an RJ11 in) which then spits out a single standard ethernet (RJ45) cable to the BT Home Hub, which is just a rebranded router.

I asked the engineer about this when my brother had BT Infinity installed, the only bit you need to keep/use after you've run all the install stuff is the modem. The BT Home Hub router is replaceable by any standard third party router/switch.

You should, I think, just be able to wack an ethernet connection from the MAC to either one of the main ports, or possibly out into the WLAN port (which is what the modem's RJ45 out would normally go to).
Providing of course the Home Hub will do it, which it might not, as it's impressively minimal in it's functionality, even after you dive into the "advanced" setup sections.

[ProfHawking]

Ah! ok I didnt know that, thats good. Yep if you have a ADSL modem box and a separate router, then in that case yes you can plug the ethernet from the mac to the WAN port on the router, instead of using the adsl modem. (You'll still need to enable internet connection sharing or whatever its called in mac lingo). Personally i'd just buy a wifi dongle and save the pollava.

PS. VM are not doing that anymore, they combine the two in their superhub whenever they have the opportunity to horse you into using one

[Joose]

PS. VM are not doing that anymore, they combine the two in their superhub whenever they have the opportunity to horse you into using one

There's an option on the superhub to put into modem mode, so you can use your own router instead, just like you used to be able to.

[ProfHawking]

There's an option on the superhub to put into modem mode, so you can use your own router instead, just like you used to be able to.

Yup i think they added that in one of the recent firmware updates. But i hear that throughput performance is still worse than the old 50mb modems in certain circumstances. I'm hanging onto my decent modem as long as poss

[spoodie]

I've found the wireless on the Superhub is unusable. So I put OpenWRT on my faithful old Linksys WRT54GL and made that a wireless access point + router. Obviously I had to make sure the Linksys wasn't responding to DHCP and DNS requests, but that was quite easy with the fancy new firmware.

[Thompy]

Alright, thanks guys. I don't want to buy anything which is why I wanted to see if it'd work with what I have. The answer is no. We took our old home hub 2 with us which is an integrated adsl router with just 4 LAN ports. I hoiked the Mac down to it (by the sink no less) and connected everything up via ethernet but something doesn't want to play ball. My only option is to connect the two computer directly which will require moving furniture (not as simple as it sounds) and making various trip hazards.