Time Machine Disk on One Machine Backing up a Second

Hello All,
I have an iMac with an external hard drive I use for time machine.  I am going to get a MacBook Air and want to use the same hard drive for Time Machine.  I know you can store 2 different computer time machine backups onto the same drive, however I do not have an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule.  My question then is, is there any way to have the MacBook Air backup to the time machine disk plugged in locally to the iMac via the Network or would I need to get a Airport Extreme or Time Capsule?  I'd prefer not having to disconnect/reconnect the time machine disk every time I want it to back up each machine (kinda defeats the point of it doing things automatically).  Is this possible?  Thanks for letting me know!

Train448 wrote:
My question then is, is there any way to have the MacBook Air backup to the time machine disk plugged in locally to the iMac via the Network
Yup. 
See #22 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.  I'd strongly recommend that you partition the drive, as noted there.
The backups made over a network will be stored differently than the ones done locally; in a disk image sparse bundle. 

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