Comments on: Tutorial: Turn Your Mac Into an AirPort Base Station

By: arielfire

arielfire — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:34:37 +0000

Finally working!!! Tahnks, thanks, thanks!!
And if I would like to have a password?

By: cory

cory — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:36:37 +0000

everyone forgets to mention that you MUST check the macs Firewall settings before getting this work. for the longest time the laptop trying to get the imacs internet-shared connection resulted in “a self-assigned IP address” and would not connect until I discovered that turning off the firewall on the macbook worked. sheesh. thank you to me.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:49:35 +0000

i may sound stupid for sating this, but i can’t connect my ipod touch to my network.
Am i doing something wrong or is it not supposed to be connectible?

By: Como configurar sua rede wireless da Apple | bernabauer.com

Como configurar sua rede wireless da Apple | bernabauer.com — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:27:43 +0000

[...] de estar com problemas nas imagens que ilustram, é o artigo do blog I Bought a Mac (IBAM). Um artigo relacionado ao tema, mostra como compartilhar o acesso a internet usando um Mac. E neste caso o Mac precisa ficar [...]

By: Severin

Severin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:42:04 +0000

oh and will I be able to access this network from my ipod touch?

By: Severin

Severin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:39:07 +0000

Can you do this with leopard cause I’ve had issues before that certain menus aren’t in the same place as tiger and I cannot find them

By: Aaron510

Aaron510 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:32:08 +0000

Way back on September 11th, 2008, Dave wrote:

“[...] when I select ’share your connection from airport’, the option to share to computers using airport disappears. The macbook is connected to the web via ethernet [...]”

If the computer acting as the router is connected to the web via ethernet, you want to choose ‘Share your connection from Ethernet’, NOT from AirPort! In any case, you can’t use the same port for sharing with other computers as you use for connecting to the Internet, which is why the AirPort option disappeared.

By: Farhan

Farhan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:30:44 +0000

Can I share a Bluetooth internet connection that I use with one mac, through the Airport connection with a PC?

how to set this one up?

By: Sugar

Sugar — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:36:22 +0000

Thank you SO much! I was up and running with my macbook off my iMac in NO time!! You ROCK!

By: button

button — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:17:28 +0000

If u don’t already have a mac in your house but u have a WIFI connection, do you need the base station to access the internet?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:33:53 +0000

I tried to do this with a macbook running OS 10.4.11, but I ran into a hitch early on… in the ’sharing’ preferences screen, when I select ’share your connection from built-in ethernet’ I can choose to share to computers using either ethernet, firewire, or airport, but when I select ’share your connection from airport’, the option to share to computers using airport disappears. The macbook is connected to the web via ethernet, and there’s no wireless signal in the apartment. Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks!

By: metzen

metzen — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:11:12 +0000

This worked perfectly for me and saved me from having to buy a router. I have a weak signal in certain corners of the house and this helped immensly. I’m using a clean install of osx panther and the only downside I see is I jjust couldn’t get it to work encrypted. I power it up when I need the range.

By: Greg Healy

Greg Healy — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:33:31 +0000

Hmm… I am pretty sure that a dedicated AirPort would help, you can get a refurb airport express on Apple’s site right now for $79.99, which is $100 cheaper than buying a new AirPort Base Station.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?sf=wHF2F2PHCCCX72KDY&nclm=CertifiedMac

By: jolubo

jolubo — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:48:31 +0000

Ran Internet Sharing on my Flat Screen (white dome) iMac for years, up to OS 10.4. Just got a new 24″ iMac, and Internet Sharing sucks..spent hours on AppleCare calls, even took it into the Genius Bar where they “tested” it and pronounced it OK. Still sucks. Range from the same position as the old iMac is only half as far, is intermittent, seems weak even when connected. It’s not the old iBook…just took it on a trip, and it worked perfectly in a hotel room, but not across the room here anymore! Could it be some mismatch? Really frustrated. Would an Airport Base Station help, or just more money down the tubes?

By: Grant Brown

Grant Brown — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:35:44 +0000

PROBLEM TOO
the same thing happened to me as to kenny. i set it up, but the performance is terrible and the device using my mac mini’s connection seems to only have the internet intermittently. doesn’t work with mac book, ps3, or iphone. going back to dlink.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:05:20 +0000

Hi, I had pretty much done what you described and can surf the internet, but cannot download mail. Also,I cannot access any webmail. It just won’t load the pages, while other pages load fine. I can’t pull up any cpanel login in pages on the web either. Thanks for any help. Sandra

By: Weja

Weja — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:14:38 +0000

———Cannot Turn on Airport ————-
I am trying to connect to a wireless router and i dont understand what I need to do to allow the router to recognize my laptop (Mac Powerbook G4, version 10.3.9) .. any hints?!
A friend asked me to check if I have an Airport card, and I guess I do have an AirPort card installed , because before I had no problem in connecting wirelessly at the office and in my friend’s house?!! Lately I noticed that I don’t see the AirPort icon in the toolbar and when I went back to the Network Port Configurations, the airport checkbox wasnt selected and the weird thing is that I cant even select it? I have no idea why?! I can select and unselect the rest of my network ports (internal modem, bluetooth, etc ) but not the Airport icon!!!! I’m so confused, it was working fine before !? Why I cant select the checkbox?! HELP ME

By: JSA

JSA — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:50:10 +0000

Hi!

Would you know if this also works with iPod Touch (i.e., if I already have set up my iMac 10.5 as my base station, can I connect my iPod Touch to it and use Safari or YouTube on my iPod Touch?)

Hope you can help me on this. Thanks!

By: JULIE

JULIE — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:19:08 +0000

LEOPARD UPDATE

This does in fact work with the new OSX 10.5. Setting up a home network is so simple and provides a little bit of added password protection that you should go ahead and do it even if you don’t have to.

Still loving it.

By: Christy Petty

Christy Petty — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:12:46 +0000

THANKS- This worked great then we lost it..- We had issues with our itouch just after upgrading and then using another network out of town. So decided to use up our tech help before it wore out– could not find this site right away–
Apple says this can not be done–they have become so PC –
I finally found you again (filed wrong in bookmarks)
Thanks for thinking like a Mac…

By: Jim Small

Jim Small — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 19:10:59 +0000

Used this set-up to connect G4 PowerBook w/OS 10.4.11 (Airport Extreme) to a G5 MacPro w OS 10.5.1 (Airport Extreme). Internet and Web sharing were on. Worked great and browsing on the G4 was not noticeably slow. Also connected my daughter’s new iTouch using the same set-up. Worked great.
The G4 is usually connected via an Ethernet router. Now I’ll use the Airport set-up if I want to surf from elsewhere in the house.
Thanks for the tip!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:17:57 +0000

For some reason, this same setup works incredibly slow for me. Browsing on the client computer is significantly slower than when using the host PC. Oddly enough, the same feature works much better in Windows… I guess this is the ONLY thing that is better in Windows than OS X.

If anyone has any tips, I’d love to hear them. I also wonder if I should downgrade to 10.4.9… I’m currently running 10.4.11.

TheCiscoKid {at} gmail {dot} com

-Ryan

By: gf

gf — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:21:03 +0000

This no longer works in Leopard 10.5 It requires you to create a network

By: Shaun

Shaun — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:16:44 +0000

This worked beautifully first time on an old iMac red 333mhz running 10.4.10. Thanks for the tip.

Is it possible to configure as a repeater to an existing wireless network?

Shaun

By: Isaac Salam

Isaac Salam — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:30:15 +0000

Like some have mentioned above, I notice that I have to reset the Internet Sharing by turning it off and then *start* again. However, I never turn off my MacMini…I’ve noticed having to do this when my MacBook has been shut or in sleep for a while. Does anyone have any ideas as how to solve this problem, or why this is happening?

Secondly, I have decided to plump down money for a QuickerTek aCard for the Mini, which makes it into a true 5ghz 802.11 a/b/g/n machine. Why not just get an Airport Extreme? I have a 750gb Maxtor connected to my mini by Firewire, and the Extreme doesn’t have a Firewire port (just USB, which might be fine for some). I use this to wirelessly backup using SuperDuper to a disk image (which works faster than you’d think with a fast wireless connection). The QuickerTek card comes with an antenna to further the distance that it reaches. Hasn’t arrived yet, but I’ll post back if anyone’s interested when it does.

By: cuvtixo

cuvtixo — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:42:32 +0000

You can check Personal Web Sharing in Firewall tab in Sharing control panel (services-firewall-internet) and only share http and keep firewall on other services and ports. Note: dedicated “wireless routers” use a lot less electricity as well as including a built-in firewall offering more protection. They are a good idea. IPNetRouterX for $100 (free trial download) is a decent alternative: if you’re willing to take the time (and spend the bucks)to learn about networking. If you’re in a place where neighbors or wardrivers might do more than innocent surfing- wireless internet sharing is not a good idea- you best bet is to buy some long pieces of ethernet wiring and keep that wire! Its like wearing a raincoat- or ya know… I mostly trust my neighbors (but not their teenagers!) anyways better safe than sorry.

By: jeff

jeff — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:50:48 +0000

this worked for me using a mac mini to an iPhone! I had to turn off my firewall, though. Anyone know if that absolutely a must?

By: JULIE

JULIE — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:53:13 +0000

ANOTHER NOTE

Contrary to comments I’ve read, the iMac Airport sends out an amazingly strong wireless signal. We’ve been able to be clear across the house with 2 rooms (one with a lot of heavy wooden furniture in it to potentially provide a lot of interference), a hallway and a closet between the base computer and the laptop and the connection stays strong.

HOWEVER, one caveat is that it does seem to help immensely to be close by when you first establish the connection.

By: JULIE

JULIE — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:46:20 +0000

UPDATE

Turns out that our problem was simple to resolve–we just had to turn off the cable modem for a bit to let it essentially resset, then turn it back on AFETR we had the two computers communicating via Airport. Sometimes the Internet sharing would not go on the first time it was checke doff…not sure why not, but once we go back in it works every time.

I’ve also found that the speed in browsing increases dramatically when we turn on personl web sharing in the Service pane of hte Sharing preferences folder. All in all I’m quite happy . And, as an aside, TimeWarner does not care how many computers you have hooked up in your home network.

Thanks everyone!

By: ron

ron — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:04:06 +0000

I’ve tried this using my new imac as the base station, and my rev b imac as the computer connecting to it.

worked without a password, but I wasn’t comfortable with that, so I added one. now it doesn’t work at all, even when I try to un-password it. it’s strange, the old mac finds the new mac, connects, but no file sharing or internet. the old mac is using a belkin usb antenna that’s not technically designed for it, but like I said, it worked for a little while…

are there settings in the internet connect panels or in the networking control panel that I need to re-set on the old mac?