Cheap Solutions: Osx10.3.3 Win98 (or Lowest Higher) Network Home Office

[liquidnomad]

network help!!

i am a web designer that owns a powerbook running OSX 10.3.3. i have aquired and old PC running windows 98, so i could check for crossplatform compatiblity for my work. the thing is it doesn't seem likely that i am going to be able to network WIN98 with OSX10.3.3.

GOAL:

what i would like to be possible is to use the WIN machine as a storage and printer hub. i have one USB canon 850i printer and i couple firewire external hard drives that i would like to connect to the PC. i know i will have to purchase a firewire PCI card to connect the hard drives to the PC. i would like to access the printer and external storage connected to the PC from anywhere in the house with my airport equipped powerbook.

better yet, while i am on the road i would like to be able to acces the those same things. that way i wouldn't need to take much more than my laptop with me while traveling.

i don't think this is too much to ask. i would like to know what i need to do for both machines (software and hardware) so that i can make this possible. i am much more addept with a MAC than i am a PC. in researching this situation i am relearning why i enjoy the MAC so much. but with some business we can be forced to try and use old paperweights to fulfill our needs.

does anyone have an idea of the easiest and cheapest way to go about doing this? if not do you know of anyone that does?

thanx much,

liquidnomad

:eek:

[acme.mail.order]

You will need the following:

1) A global (but not necessarily static) ip address from your ISP. You probably have this already. Go to www.myip.com. If the number does NOT begin with 172 or 192 then you're fine.

2) A router. Your Airport base station may do this already. Look in System Preferences -> Network -> whatever adapter you use and look at the current IP address. If it does begin with 172 or 192 then you're fine. Your router must support port forwarding (see the manual) for you to access the network from the outside.

3) A hub. If your router has 4 or so ports on the back, you've got one. If not, any computer store will have them for under $40.

4) A large, high-capacity coffee maker and some high-octane beans. I recommend Yukon Blend from Starbucks. Start it up after the hardware is in but before you tackle the software.

The hardware part is fairly easy, the software part has been well-flogged in the Network Forum. Turn on Apache on your mac if you haven't done so already and you can test your sites locally.

[trevor]

1) A global (but not necessarily static) ip address from your ISP. You probably have this already. Go to www.myip.com. If the number does NOT begin with 172 or 192 then you're fine.

Also if it doesn't begin with 10. There are three so-called unroutable subnets reserved for local networks. The class A unroutable subnet is 10.x.x.x.

Trevor

[acme.mail.order]

OK, since we're being completely correct, a global address is one that is NOT in:
0.*.*.* (internal machine use)
10.*.*.* (class A networks)
127.*.*.* (loopback address)
172.[16-31].*.* (Class B networks)
169.254.*.* (dhcp failure self-assigned addresses)
192.168.*.* (Class C networks)
255*.*.* (Broadcast addresses)

As you can't have a working network with an address beginning with 0, 127 or 255, and your connection probably won't access the internet with a self-assigned 169.254 address, that leaves 10, 172 and 192.168. As Class A private networks are pretty rare chances are his PN either starts with 192 or 172.

And I should correct the first paragraph of my previous post. Checking the address returned by myip.com is only useful if it matches your computer's ip - then you definitely have a global IP. The Airport base station will change that. Call your ISP and ask.

[ulrichm]

OK, since we're being completely correct, a global address is one that is NOT in:
0.*.*.* (internal machine use)
10.*.*.* (class A networks)
127.*.*.* (loopback address)
172.[16-31].*.* (Class B networks)
169.254.*.* (dhcp failure self-assigned addresses)
192.168.*.* (Class C networks)
255*.*.* (Broadcast addresses)

As you can't have a working network with an address beginning with 0, 127 or 255, and your connection probably won't access the internet with a self-assigned 169.254 address, that leaves 10, 172 and 192.168. As Class A private networks are pretty rare chances are his PN either starts with 192 or 172.

And I should correct the first paragraph of my previous post. Checking the address returned by myip.com is only useful if it matches your computer's ip - then you definitely have a global IP. The Airport base station will change that. Call your ISP and ask.
--- Amen! ---