Put your design hats on

[worker201]

I am in need of a home networking solution.

Minimal components:
- Apple MacBookPro (Bluetooth, Wireless, and Ethernet), running OSX 10.5.5
- IBM Thinkpad T-60 (Bluetooth, Wireless, and Ethernet), running Windows XP SP3
- HP Officejet 6310 (Bluetooth and Ethernet)
- Motorola Surfboard SB5101 cable modem (Ethernet)

Hardware currently available:
- Linksys 5-Port Workgroup switch EZXS55W
- bunch of cat5 cable

Network requirements:
- print from both computers
- use internet on Mac
- internet available to PC only in emergency cases, with explicit permission
- file transfers available between both computers on as-needed basis
- both computers and printer may go on or off randomly, for energy-saving purposes

Design considerations:
- everything is close together, so wireless is not required
- where does the printer get its IP address from, anyway?

All serious options considered.

[Lead Head]

You need to find the documentation for the switch and printer. The switch should have a configuration page (at least I'd imagine it would, which should allow you to control with PCs get internet). Older printers you would have to manually set the IP, or they would have a set static IP. Newer printers are DHCP compatible however - the router/switch assigns it an IP

[worker201]

This switch has no documentation.  For all intents and purposes, it is a hub with 5 outbound ports and 1 inbound port.  Maybe what I need to get is a real router.

It seems like the printer is taking orders from somebody - the Mac probably.  There's no way that I can find to set the IP, so it must see the Mac as the DHCCP server.  This would explain why the Mac has no trouble connecting to the printer ever, while the PC forgets the printer's address everytime one the printer cycles power - which is after every use.

[Lead Head]

If its a switch - it *MIGHT* have a configuration page, if its a hub there is almost no chance of it at all. Hubs are pretty cruddy little things, even the cheapest routers these days have 4 port switches. That is the first thing I would do personally, is get a good wireless router.

[worker201]

Why wireless?  The printer and cable modem have to be wired, no reason not to wire the 2 computers as well.  Everything sits in a 5-sqft area anyway.  One of the computers has no battery (still), and the other has 3 external hard drives attached, so it's not like I'm going to be wandering around the house with them.

[davidnix71]

For file transfers just get a cheap usb thumb drive, and format it FAT32. If you have a single file larger than 4GB then you're going to have trouble. MacFUSE http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/  allows your Mac to read and write to an NTFS volume, if you are willing to play a bit you could NTFS format a usb drive and use it for file transfers. MacFUSE works in Tiger and Leo.

[worker201]

Through the use of the switch, I have been able to do file transfers.  I can't set up a permanent link because the damn computers keep forgetting their addresses, so I have to set up new connections every time.  But it is possible to do transfers that way using samba shares.  As usual, the Mac is accomodating the ignorant PC.  I've got a 2GB thumb drive that I use for transfers, but a networking solution just seems more elegant.  If I had a router and was able to assign permanent addresses to both machines, it would be easy to set up permanent solutions.

[worker201]

I think the network shown in this picture is exactly what I need.  The only thing that's missing is the router.  Anybody got any product suggestions?  It should be something I can find locally here in Seattle, and not cost a lot of money.  I'm considering a Linksys BEFSR41, but that's just because I've used Linksys before.  It's $60, and I don't want to spend much more than that.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/homenetworking/ig/Home-Network-Diagrams/Wired-Router-Network-Diagram.htm

[davidnix71]

So you would assign a permanent IP to the printer and let the rest float?

I have a coworker I gave a cheap ($15 at Tx Micro) switch to because he couldn't get 2 computers on the web at the same time with a router. I don't know exactly what the problem was, but a dumb switch between his dsl box and the 2 machines fixed it.

You might want to read this http://lifehacker.com/software/mac-os-x-leopard/leopard-simplifies-networking-317033.php
about setting up shares between Leo and XP.

[worker201]

Well, I have the network setup now.  I got the Linksys router mentioned above.  Because of the way I plugged them in, the printer got the 1st address, the Mac got the 2nd, and the PC got the 3rd.  I could make the printer's permanent, I think, it's just a matter of figuring out the setup.  Setting a permanent IP address for the computers is weird.  On the Mac, it's easy - they have a setting that will let you use DHCP with a static IP address, so all you have to do is type in the address, and it gets the rest of the settings from the router.  The PC is either all or nothing.  You either obtain everything automatically, or you enter everything by hand.  Also, the PC doesn't really see the router - it gets the gateway from the cable modem, and you have to add the router as a preferred gateway to get it to work properly.  The Mac finds the router no problem.

One thing that was interesting about the setup was the MAC address.  Apparently Comcast has registered my internet service to my Mac's MAC.  It wouldn't give the new router anything at all.  Fortunately, the Linksys can clone the MAC, so I entered the Mac's MAC, and everything was groovy.

As I have stated before, one of my goals was to keep the PC from getting internet access while still having network access.  The Linksys router allows you to filter by IP or by MAC.  Since the system is currently doing DHCP, I decided to filter by MAC.  It works like a charm, and I can tell you that Windows was very unhappy about that.  It flashed the "A network cable has been unplugged" message for a second, but then dismissed it when it realized that wasn't true.  Like the spurts and sputters at the beginning of a temper tantrum.  Now I can almost hear it pouting and sulking over there, but fuck it - if Microsoft can't make a secure OS, no internet for you.

So should I keep the DHCP, or go with assigned addresses?  I think the assigned addresses would make intra-computer networking easier, since the machines will go on and off at random, usually releasing their leases in the process.  Any drawbacks?

[Lead Head]

I would keep DHCP on, as it makes adding/removing computers. You can also set the router to keep the addresses a certain amount of time before it rewnews them.

[worker201]

Well, I see your point about openness and maintaining modularity.  But at what point does it become ridiculous?  I mean, I will not be adding any computers to this network.  I have 2 laptops right now, and the most that I would ever want to run would be 3, but that's not financially plausible at this time.  Even if I did get a new one, I would just set it to 192.168.1.103 and be done with it.  Allowing for infinite expansion seems kinda silly when finite expansion isn't going to occur.

[Lead Head]

I'm just saying, on the many networks I've used/worked on, I've never had a problem with leaving DHCP on