IPhoto, iWeb & shared library

Question

Hi,
Is it possible to have a (home) network with a multi & full accessed read/write iPhoto library?
I've an old PowerPC MacMini primarily used (like a NAS) as a central storage device. It contains my music, photo libraries etc which are further stored on a connected Iomega 300G Hard Disk. My photo library runs under iPhoto 5.0.4.
My other (and primary) machine is my laptop, MacBook Pro, where I want to do all my work - such as publishing photos, maintaining web-site. I don't want to store my music/photos on any of my laptops, I want them centralised.
The first problem I have is that I cannot export to iWeb on my MBP when I use my shared library (with iPhoto 6.0.6). The option is greyed out - presumably standard for shared libraries.
The second problem is that I will get another laptop soon (MacBook) and would like to be able to add photos to my library from any of my Macs. I don't want to have to unplug my Iomega hard disk and attach it to whatever Mac I am using.
Is it possible to overcome these limitations?
I tried sharing my MacMini and changing my MBP iPhoto library to the mount point - but using afp the external 'Volumes' are not shown. So I tried using Samba - but it doesn't always show up, doesn't auto-mount, and iPhoto on the MBP complained that it didn't have write-access.
In the Mac world, there must be an easier way?
TIA

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, you have two computers. One of them has an external hard drive connected to it and you want to know how to make that available to another computer, correct?
If this is the scenario, for ease of reference, let's name the computers. We'll call the computer with the external hard drive Scrooge. The one that wants access to the hard drive we'll call Cratchet. One way to give Cratchet access to Scrooge's hard drive is through firewire. Assuming that both have an available firewire port, you can do the following:
(This process may not be perfect, since I am not set up to test it at the moment, but...)
1. Plug them in through firewire (both hot)--do NOT put one in transfer mode.
2. On Scrooge, go to the sharing portion of the system preferences and activate:
a. personal filesharing
b. remote login
3. On Cratchet, go to the network portion of the system preferences and:
a. Select "Built-in FileWire" from the "Show" pull-down menu.
b. Under the TCP/IP setting, select "Using DHCP"
c. Push the button "Configure IPv6.."
Unless I am mistaken, this should prepare Cratchet to see Scrooge.
4. Now Cratchet should be able to connect to Scrooge using the "Connect to server" command in the Finder menus as normal. When you do connect, you will have to log on. When it prompts you for what disk to mount, simply select the hard drive that you want to work on.
5. Once you have mounted the desired hard drive, you can save yourself time in the future by ctrl-clicking the hard drive's icon on the desktop and making an alias of it. Then in the future, you can (after plugging-in the firewire) double click on this alias and enter your password to access it.
PS: If desired, you can also tell Scrooge to share his internet connection with the firewire connected computer (if relevant) in his network preferences--kind of cool, huh?
I hope this helps.