Wierless Network, PC's, and MAC

[Jester]

I have two pc's set up on a net gear router. I was wondering if i upgrade to a wirless router if i could have the two pc's and an I-book on the same network? THe i-book will be for school mostly and i dont like sitting in the same place while writing papers. I would also like to take it to the library and such for reasearch. I will have Microsoft Office v.X for the MAC which is cross compatible. I was just wondering if the network would work and if i could share those office file's across the network as well as music files, and video files?

[ThePoor]

yes, it should work. you need to install Appletalk protocol on microsoft OS.

[wedor]

Appletalk is TCP/IP there is nothing to install, you could do this wired, there is no need for an "upgrade" to wireless but it will work as well.

[Mac Medic]

Are you using OS X or 9x? If you are using 9x you'll need a program like "dave" to handle net-bios for you. If OS X you just use TCP IP and share drives.

[Jester]

It will be OS X. The reason I am upgrading to wireless, is because my wife likes to work out side. I like to work other places besides my computer room, and last but not least should i be some place with a wireless access point i would like to utilize that. Thus begins my journey into the dark/light (depending on how you look at it). THe world of Mac. Thanks guys. When I finally purchess all of these little pretties I will have a lot more questions.

[Jester]

I just did a little more research and now i am confused. I see that I can connect thru an ethernet cable, but i have seen nothing on wireless. My question now is can i use a wireless router with the i-book, or do i need the seperate air port.

[wedor]

I don't think it matters, the wireless standard stays the same regardless of OS. If you are worried look at the makers website to see if their wireless cards have MAC drivers, a clear indication of compatibility.

As far as the requiring add-on programs for net-bios, I don't buy that, I used to work on a network that had a combination of MACs and PCs hooked to an NT 4.0 server, they had no third party app for this, everything runs off of TCP/IP, no need for net-bios.

[Mac Medic]

Dave enables users to browse windows shares. Sure you can connect to a share using Apple's Open Transport TCP/IP in OS 9, but to browse a share the way most people browse a network you would need Dave.

http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html

OS X does not have this limitation and is capable of browsing windows shares out of the box. And there is no need for Appletalk on the PC. Appletalk is long since dead and gone.

[Mac Medic]

I'm assuming you are going to use Apple's airport card internally? It will connect to any 802.11b/g (not a) network you encounter that you are authorized to join. It supports WEP/WPA. It's as compatible as any windows wireless device.

To see a windows network you open system preferences, go to sharing and turn on windows file sharing, this will allow you to browse windows shares from the finder. To allow windows machines to see you, you must turn on personal file sharing also.

If you are handy with the unix terminal you can set up you Mac shares there, if not, a good GUI front end is sharepoints.

Heres a good tutorial that explains things better than I ever could,

http://lowendmac.com/mac2win/04/0623.html