Can I create a wireless LAN and file sharing between two household Macs?

I've got an iMac G5 running 10.4.11 and an Intel iMac running 10.5 and was wondering if I create a wireless Local Area Network and file sharing between my two household Macs?

I have a network set up for my mom using an old blue iMac with an airport card as the base station. I'm using Tiger on the machine, but you should be able to do this on Leopard, too. She's 700 miles away, and I did it quite a while ago, but it seems I set everything up using the Airport Utility. At one point I think I had Internet Sharing on, too, but I don't remember if that's still on. Haven't needed to use file sharing on the network, but my G4 and her boyfriends MacPro happily use the network via Airport. I'm guessing you could share files that way. If it doesn't work, an Airport Express is a less expensive option for the router, at least cheaper than an Extreme.

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Problem conecting and file-sharing between two net-worked macs

I have a Mac Pro (in an out-building in my back-garden) and an Imac (in the house) connected by a long ethernet cable (must be at least 20 metres).
I used to have no trouble connecting one to the other till recently. I still usually have no trouble connecting to the Internet from the Mac Pro using the Imac's internet connection (wireless). The problem is in clicking on the Imac connection to open it in order to share files (also using "connect to server" in Go menu).
Much of the time (but not absolutely always), it refuses to connect, and I get a "failed connection message" (or something like "server does not exist" if using other method).
Sometimes, I can connect successfully, not just as a guest but after entering admin password, and then short time later the connection will disappear. When this happens, the Imac icon previously visible in the finder window also disappears. Unplugging and replugging the ethernet cable has no effect. Once I was using Itunes shared library to play a song on the Imac, and the song just suddenly disappeared.
Just now, after the Mac Pro-to-Imac conection failed again, I substituted my Ibook for the Imac in the house, and there was no problem at all connecting both ways between it and the Mac Pro. I then reconnected the Imac to the Mac Pro and it too connected fine. This proved at least that the ethernet cable was not at fault, but no doubt the problem will re-occur.
I have tried experimenting with the Firewall settings on the Imac, e.g. to "allow all incoming connections" or to "set access for specific services"( the latter is my usual setting on the Imac), but it made no difference. Also, the Ibook has no trouble at all connecting to the Imac when the Imac firewall is set to "specific services" so why should the Mac Pro have a problem (I admit I am a little uncertain about the best setting for the Firewall, but believe "specific services" to be correct).
File-sharing options in system prefs on the Imac are clearly properly set-up or there would never be any connection at all.
Often, although the Mac Pro to Imac connection will not work, the Imac to Mac Pro will, although not today, when the Mac Pro icon similarly was not present on the Imac.
As stated, I am pretty sure that all the time the internet connection from Mac Pro to Imac still works (Mac Pro shares Imac conection).
None of this appears to make much sense and am wondering if anyone has advice.

Hi,
It might be me but I don't think I have fully understood the "My Name's iMac" bit.
If you mean (my Name) iMac as opposed to (My Name) iBook or Shed computer then that is a separate issue I will describe below
Does the "My Name" bit mean like mine does in this pic ?
As you can see I have used the Edit Button to change the Name of this G4 to RalphG4
In System Preferences > Network > (Connection method) > Advanced Button > WINS tab I see this on my G4
I have in fact used the same "Computer name" here (As in RalphG4)
My MacBook Pro has had the Netbois Name changed to Macbook Pro
It shows in the G4 Shares as that.
The Finder's Preferences are set to Display the Bonjour and SMB shares that I can see as I have a Mixed PC and Mac Network here
(Currently only the MacBook Pro is On as well)
SMB Shares are not on in the MacBook Pro settings so it shows as a Mac Server (Highlight and do a Get Info)
Two Computers with Same Name
In Bonjour when two computers end up with the same name (As my two did originally) these double name issue cannot be resolved and the computer may be "Seen" briefly before it then disappears
I have not tried it with SMB shares on my two Macs having had issues with Bonjour.
(Note: iChat goes one step further.
Even if the computer names are different iChat uses the Name in the My Card spot in the Address Book to show as the Buddy Name in the Bonjour Buddy List.
It cannot resolve this if both computers are logged in as the same Person.)
Another reason why a computer may show up twice is how it or they are connected.
Lets say that all are connected to a router either by Wifi or Ethernet.
They will be then seen once.
If one computer is connected by Ethernet and Wifi at the same time then it will be shown twice as each appearance is linked to the Media Access Card it is using and the IP it uses for each connection.
This can also happen if one is linked directly to another with an Ethernet connection or Wifi whilst doing the other to the router.
Back to the naming thing again.
It is better to use the Edit Button (Arrowed in Blue above) (.Local Name) rather than trying to change the computer's Name (Ralph Johns's Computer) as this is less reliable in later versions of the OS.
8:52 PM Sunday; August 29, 2010

Wireless file sharing between two MacBooks

I feel like this is kind of a silly question, but here goes:
Is it possible to set up wireless file sharing between two macs when there is no wireless network available.
For example, if I am on a plane (with no wi-fi) and wan to wirelessely connect to my partners macbook to browse his hard drive, can I do it? Right now, I use a firewire cable when flying, but would love to not have to.
Thanks for the help.
Message was edited by: kr and cr

Yes, it's possible to do.
You setup one of the Macs to act as a base station of sorts. If you've got the AirPort Status menu shown you can just use the 'Create Network…' option in that menu to create a new wireless network hosted on this Mac. Just tell the other Mac to connect to that network using the name and security credentials you specified when you created the network, and you're done.

Air Drop and File Sharing Between Macs Please HELP

I have a 2011 Mac Book Pro running Mavericks and a 2010 Mac Pro running mountain lion and I am having trouble air Dropping and file sharing between them.
My MBP works fine. It can see other macs and share with them on my home network. My MP on the other hand cant see any other computers under the shared devices location in my finder. I have turned on file sharing for my MP as well as screen sharing. Neither works. My Mp used to be able to Air Drop and File share.
When I try to Air Drop to my MP it wont receive the item.
Has someone been through this before and know how to fix the issue? Ive been trying to research this for a while and haven't been able to find a solution.
Any help would be great!
Thanks

Are you using a frieWall on individual Macs?
If you are using a Router you control, individual computer FireWalls are not needed.

Wireless application for files exchange between two computers,pls Help

Hi everyone,
I need your help,pls.I have to make a wireless application for files exchange between two computers,but I don't know where to start from.I guess that this should be a client/server and after establishing a connection I have to be able to exchange files between each others.Please help me

the wireless connection does not matter.
This is a socket (client server as you said) same way.
look out:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/networking/index.html
cya

Cannot use File Sharing Between Two Macs Running tiger

I have a G3 Desktop and a Platinum powerbook connected wirelessly using an Airport Extreme. I used to be able to easily share files between the two Macs but since upgrading to Tiger on both machines and loading the latest software upgrades and Airport firmware, running Disk Utility, setting preferences to turn on AppleTalk and file sharing, file sharing does not work. It worked one time after downloading the new Airport firmware but now I cannot find the other computer on the Airport network. There are only two computers on the Airport network. Does anybody have any ideas?

Problem solved by reading the reply to dkolenda's post earlier today. I turned off UDP traffic blocking inthe firewall settings and now both computers can see each other and share files.
Thanks!

Create a wireless network AND Internet sharing?

Hi all,
I own a MacBook Pro and an iPhone, and currently live at a state university. The problem is that the wireless network won't allow communication between devices, only to the internet, and you aren't allowed to have a wireless router. You are, by some strange loophole, allowed to share an internet connection from a computer. My problem is that I either can share the Internet (which doesn't allow me to use apps that use WiFi to communicate with my Mac, like iDisplay) or create a wireless network (which means I can't connect to the internet via WiFi on my phone). So here's my question:
How can I share my internet connection with my iPhone as well as be able to use apps that communicate with my mac, such as iDisplay?
Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Your Mac is already using the Wifi to connect to the network, you don't have control over the router can't have one, so you can't make any changes to have your iPhone use the router to communicate with your Mac.
They likely already have enough bandwidth issues as it is to allow streaming between devices on the local network too.
Open Mesh with Internet Sharing via the Mac's Ethernet port and a Cat5 cable?

File sharing between two Macs wirelessly

Hi I want to share files over my local network via a WI-FI internet connection that both my Macs are connected to. I read some blog posts about how to turn on file sharing on both machines in Network Prefs but still the finder sidebar does not show the other Mac. What am I doing wrong?
cheers
Simon

On the Mac that you want to share, turn on File Sharing in +System Preferences > Sharing+
Also make sure that your firewall is not blocking incoming connections. Check this in +System Prefs > Security > Firewall > Advanced+
Then you should be able to log on from another Mac by doing +Go > Connect to Server > Browse+ This will enable you to log on to the Mac whose file sharing is turned on.
If you want +both Macs+ to share their files, and allow each Mac to log on to the other, then you have to turn on File Sharing and check your firewall settings on both Macs

File Sharing between two macs

Hello and happy new year everyone!
I have a MBP running Snow Leopard and i recently bought an iMac running Lion. I would like to set up a network at home to easily transfer my data. What i did was to enable file sharing in both machines (connected to the same wifi network). My problem is that the two machines never appear on the Finder left bar "Shared" folder. But they are actually connected! I can access my iMac for example, indirectly, if i enter its local address on safari (afp://192.168.1.19 ).
To sum up, this is not so convenient to do each time and i would like my machines to appear on the finder. Any ideas why that doesnt happen?
Thanks a lot for your help
Dimitris

I recommend that you append a suffix to your User Name so that the OS can differentiate between the two computers ie Name1_A, Name1_B.
I maintain 50 iMacs/eMacs in a High School Video Production class.
The Teacher's Name was the same on ALL computers for Admin account. When I setup an Airport Wireless Server the Network could not recognize the different computers for Program/File Sharing until I renamed each computer's Admin Account with a different name - Teacher Name_A to Teacher Name_ZZ.
Once this was done then the Network could recognize the different computers and open the Program/File Sharing items for each computer.

Setting up file sharing between two Macs

Just bought a new MBP. My wife will use the old MBP. Both running 10.9.4
Hers shows under ‘Shared’ in my Finder & mine in hers.
On clicking ‘Connect As’ from either laptop we are asked for a password.
I must be overlooking something basic, but for the life of me cannot work out how to set the password.
I have been into System Preferences/Sharing preferences & tried to add her as a user & vice versa. I can add each of us to the other’s list of users, but when either of us tries to connect & are prompted to enter a password, the password is rejected. Like wise if I go into File sharing ‘Options’, & find the user name in the account list (only he & me) on hers I am unticked & on mine she is unticked.
When I tick either box I am prompted again to enter a password (for SMB). Again on entering the password it is rejected.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.

Ian Lock wrote:
MrHoffman, by ‘log directly’ do you mean can I sit at my wife’s (or my) mac, type in the login passwords at the login screens & gain access? If so the answer is yes.
These are the same passwords I have been trying to use to log in to file sharing from the connect as box in Finder. Same result both ways. Password rejected/password input box shakes.
Yep. That was the test.
Launch Console.app from Applications > Utilities on the target Mac, and then see if there are any messages logged when the incoming Finder connection to that target Mac fails. (Please don't post more than a dozen or two lines and definitely please don't dump hundreds of lines of console output here. Remove repeating blocks, and — if you do post that data here — please check for any confidential or sensitive information before posting it.)
Also, if there are any add-on "anti-malware" or "anti-virus" tools, or I/O "enhancement" tools, or tools that claim to "optimize", "protect", "clean" or "tweak" your Mac, please remove all of those. Use the tool-specific procedures to remove those. If you're not sure, download and run and post the output from Etrecheck, and we'll have a look at the software configuration. (Etrecheck also tries not to display anything sensitive, but do review that output before posting it here.)

File sharing between two levels of network, switch + router

i've got a network setup with a cable modem and two IPs from my ISP. i've got a basic switch hooked up to the modem, with a wireless N router plugged into the switch pulling one IP and one computer pulling the other IP. the router has 5 comps connected to it, 3wired & 2 wireless.
anyone have any idea of a way to connect to/from the one computer with the public IP from/to any of the 5 machines on the internal network?
or... to the router somehow?
most of the machines are intel macs, and i've got dual boot OSX/XP on most, so suggestions for either OS would be helpful

On the Mac that you want to share, turn on File Sharing in +System Preferences > Sharing+
Also make sure that your firewall is not blocking incoming connections. Check this in +System Prefs > Security > Firewall > Advanced+
Then you should be able to log on from another Mac by doing +Go > Connect to Server > Browse+ This will enable you to log on to the Mac whose file sharing is turned on.
If you want +both Macs+ to share their files, and allow each Mac to log on to the other, then you have to turn on File Sharing and check your firewall settings on both Macs

File sharing between two computers; reg. user has insufficient privileges

I am trying to transfer a file between a FP iMac and a new iMac, the former running 10.4.11 and the latter 10.5.5. File sharing is enabled on both. I can connect over our AirPort network as a registered user to my user account (which has the same name on both machines.) When I try to copy a folder from one to the other, I get an error message that I have insufficient privileges. When I check ownership for the file to be transferred and the destination folder (Desktop), I have read/write privileges for both.
What am I doing wrong?

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "FP?"
On each computer, one at a time, could you afp mount the other computer and then, in Terminal.app, type
ls -Talkes (and leave a space after that final "s"),
then drag-and-drop from the Finder your source folder and and your destination folder (that will contain the copy of the source folder), then hit return?
As an example, after typing ls -Talkes and dragging the source and destination folders into the Terminal window one at a time and just before striking the return key, the command line in Terminal would read
ls -Talkes Desktop/Source_folder /Volumes/jv/Desktop
the first time on the source computer and
ls -Talkes /Volumes/jv/Desktop/Source_folder Desktop
the second time on the destination computer.
Please post the results for both cases, "sanitizing" as you see fit any personal identifying information and removing reported data from extraneous files and folders. I am mostly interested in seeing the permissions and ACLs for the entire path going from / (root) to source folder and the files contained therein, and from /Volumes/afpmountpoint to destination directory, relative to one computer, and from /Volumes/afpmountpoint to source folder and the files contained therein, and from / to destination directory, relative to the other computer.

Can I Share/Sync my iCal (and Address Book) between two Macs?

I have my Address book and iCal on a MacBook.
I also have a MacMini on my desktop.
Is there some way that I import the MacBook Addresses and iCal into the Mini - AND synchronize them so that when one is changed, the other also changes?
Does this require a .Mac account or is there some way to do it just across my network?
Thanks,
--PS

You might be interested in Address Book Server (http://www.addressbookserver.com). It allows you to sync either the entire Address Book or selected groups between several macs on the same network or over the internet.

File sharing between two mac

I have iMacG5 OSX 10.4.8 and a PowerBook G4.Previously I could see the other's desktop and could transfer/drop etc. files to it.With cmd+k I get only the Drop Box but with the warning :could not opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges.I forgot the setting.Please let me inform how to set to see and use e.g. from my iMac the Power Book desktop.
Many thanks in advance
Robert

See Knowledge Base Article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106461 Mac OS X: About File Sharing

Why can't I do file sharing between Macintoshes ?

Why can't I do file sharing between two Macintoshes ?
I have 2 Macs in the same room. Both are connected to the same router (wired, not wifi), I have verified their connection by going to the Internet successfully on both machines.
I have disabled all security functions I am aware of. I turned off firewall, turned on file sharing, allowed all users for file sharing.
Yet, when I tried to connect to the other Mac permission is denied. I'm told to contact the network administrator, (that's me). Both machines are running OS 10.9.5.
Strangely, I was able to do “screen sharing” which doesn't solve my problem.
I just want to move files from one Mac to the other.
Is there something I'm missing here?

(Yosemite falsely identifies iMovie HD 06 as not compatible.)
Actually, it is by design; according to their Engineers, they have coded iMovie HD 06 not to launch - that is what I was told after submitting my bug report. So, it still works in Mavericks, but that is as far as it'll go.

Can I create a wireless LAN and file sharing between two household Macs?

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