Just got a G5 and trying to get internet with network bridge through laptop... help?

[zamardii12]

Hi everyone, I was hoping someone more savvy with Macs can help me out. I acquired 2 G5s (one I will convert to ATX in the future), but the other I am just trying to mess around with. I am searching for a wireless solution to get on the internet with it without having to spend money on a wifi adapter or something, but I tried over the weekend to use my Windows 8 laptop as a network bridge but I couldn't get the Mac to connect to the internet. I figured I might have to give it a static IP or something and reserve it within the Verizon wireless router but that didn't seem to work.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how I could get that to work?

Thanks!

 

[rabidz7]

Have you though about buying a powerline adapter, which are usually cheaper than WiFI cards?

 

[zamardii12]

Never even knew these existed. Amazing that it can transmit data over the electrical outlet. Will keep this in mind. Thanks!

 

[Arcygenical]

Enable ics on the laptops wifi to the Ethernet port, and use a regular cable.

I've done this many times with the old g5 I had...

 

[tdowning]

Macsales.com has a USB 802.11ac adapter for 23.88 (I might call them and see if it will work with PPC.

ICS is Internet Connection Sharing, you will need to enable that on your laptop to get it to "Bridge" the networks. Technically ICS is also a NAT router so devices on the "Main" network may not be able to directly access the Mac, but the Mac should be able to access things on the main network, (but some auto-discovery protocols would not work)

If it still works the same you will have to set a "Share From" which would be your wireless, and a "Share To" which would be Ethernet. ICS will also run a DHCP server on the share to interface, just like a Netgear D-link or other residential router would.

AFAIK, the Mac should be able to auto-crossover so you won't need a crossover cable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable
but if it doesn't it may help to plug both ethernet ports into a switch, (assuming you have a switch that is not also a router) just to verify they both light up there.