I'm desperate...
 

'networking for dummies' confused you? did you try 'networking for the catatonic mind'?

actually ive looked into networkign macs and pcs some, and as far as ive been able to figure out theres really no easy way. on the other hand ive never really looked into it that carefully, just sort of out of curiosity. good luck and let me know if you learn anything.

I'm about to be doing this myself in the next couple days...I'll post here letting you know what I figure out...

Do you want file-sharing between the Mac and the PC, or just internet access from both?

If just internet access is needed, then all you'd have to do is define the default gateway and any DNS servers (you can call your ISP about both of those) on the computers (though I have very little experience with Mac networking, I'll bet whatever you'd be looking for would be in the Networking Control Panel).

However, IIRC, you'll need a seprate program to interface between the Mac and the PC, and I seem to remeber seeing something like that selling for about $100, once (though I wouldn't doubt being able to find some freeware for it, search for something like "PC Mac Networking File-Sharing" at www.google.com, hmm... after about 30 seconds i found http://wcic.cioe.com/~galanti/ which tell of someone else's experiences with networking a PC and a Mac [but it looks like he was using a Win95 box, dunno what OS you have], and then there's http://www.miramar.com/ which offers a program called PC MACLAN, which looks like it'd might be a possible answer).

Well, I hope this helped...

my head is spinning...
 

What OS?
 

For just internet sharing, it's actually not that hard...Win98 and everything after that have a "Internet Connection Sharing" option that you can use if you already have the two machines physically connected with the necessary LAN equipment....what OS do you have, and I think I can help you out from there...

Unless you get a special "crossover" ethernet cable, you'll need a hub between the two machines...what version of Windows on the PC side? And yes, you will need a LAN card in the PC

Instead of getting a hub, spend the extra $50-100 and get a router. It's much easier than setting up one computer to be a gateway, and you won't have to keep that computer on all the time.

Mike

That will work for a dedicated connection...if you're dealing with a good ol' modem connection, you'll have to set up the gateway...Win98's ICS config wizard does most of the work for you, and that way, you don't have to worry about getting multiple IPs from your ISP, whether you've got a modem or a cable/dsl/other direct connection

It sounds like Carolyn has a cable modem. Fortunately I've never used ICS, since I've had ethernet (at school) or cable modem (at home). With a router, you don't need multiple IPs, it creates a private subnet and all the computers use the router as their gateway.

Summary: for a cable modem/dsl, the best choice is a router. For a modem, the best choice is ICS.

Mike

Router is the Way to Go
 

For a home or small office network with a continuous internet connection, a router is definately the way to go. For ease-of-use, I would reccomend a router with a built-in hub, such as Netgear's RT 314. You can find more information on their products at www.netgear.com.
The router will allow the internet connection from the cable modem to be shared across multiple computers running any operating system with network capabilities, including Windows 98, Me, 2000, MacOS, Linux, Irix, etc. Furthermore, only the computer that you would like to use the internet with will need to be on, whereas using software like Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) would require all of the computers to be on.

Jeff C.

Its cheaper than you think.

Go to Best Buy, get a Linksys or Dlink (or other) router specific for sharing a Broadband connection. This option requires that your connection goes from Cable/DSL to ethernet. Many new ISP's are using Cable/DSL to USB to make the installation easier. Like the others said it appears as a single IP to the ISP and you have your own private network on the other side. Some added benifits, Possible printer server built in, 100 Base-T switch hub, DHCP server to automatically assign IP's and other settings, even tha ability to autoswitch to modem if the Cable/DSL line goes down, all for between 90 and about 175 dollars. Technology like this used to be at leat a grand. I run it in my house and I can say the performance is pretty impressive. Keep in mind I don't think you can have multiple players to an online game through any of the solutions above since they all appear as a single IP to the network. Hope it works for you.