I hardly talk about Mac because I don't have one and I'm not an expert to the point of suggesting useful programs and procedures for solving problems like I do for Windows. However, every now and then I get called to help out a friend who can't do certain things, especially when it comes to setting up a MAC computer that can talk to a Windows PC. Already in another article I wrote about how you can safely use a Mac where there is a network of Windows PCs, inside an office or other environments.
In this case instead we see how to share the internet connection from a Mac .
Internet sharing has already been explained in other articles where the procedure for sharing the network via wifi or cable is described.
This type of computer-to-computer connection is becoming increasingly popular because it is becoming more and more frequent when you connect with a USB stick. So, if at home I had a normal connection, I would first buy a router that today has an affordable price for everyone, but if you have two or three computers and one of them surfs the internet with a USB stick or mobile phone, here is that to share this connection to other PCs, using Wifi, becomes really important.
But if it happens that, in the home network, you have a Mac and a Windows PC, then the problems begin.
Sharing the Internet between Macs is basically very simple, but if you add a Windows PC in between, things get a little problematic.
Starting with the easy part, let's see how we can share the connection between two Macs .
Open the System Preferences, click on Sharing and then on Internet Sharing making sure you have configured the appropriate settings first.
In this screen you must put, from the drop-down menu where " Share your connection from " is written, Ethernet. Wifi can be chosen as a way to share connectivity. Pressing the Options button below, the window appears where you can put the name and parameters of the new network. In the Security menu, choose WPA2 and enter a password.
If everything goes smoothly between two Macs, with Windows instead there is the problem of password recognition due to a different method used by the two systems in HEX encryption. A Windows PC will be able to detect the wireless network, but will not be able to attack itself.
The solution is to choose the 128-bit WEP encryption option and enter a 13-character password and then, rename the network with a three or four letter name, without spaces .
Now that the sharing has started, any other Apple system, like another Mac computer but also an IPod Touch or an Iphone, will connect to the internet using this connection as if you were connecting to a router.
On the Windows PC, on the other hand, you have to tweak a little more.
So, first of all you have to activate the wireless network card, right click on its icon from the system tray and select "View available wireless networks".
In the next window, click on "Change advanced settings".
Click on the "wireless networks" tab and press the "Add" button to add the shared network created by the Mac.
At this point, write the name of the network, the same one used before, set the shared network authentication, uncheck the box next to "This key is automatically provided" and enter the 13-character password. In the Authentication tab you have to disable IEEE 802.1x while in the connection tab, select the item "Establish a connection".
Click OK and apply the settings to browse the internet.
Before connecting to the internet, I always recommend that you pay attention to the DNS parameters that must always be written by hand on the computers that receive the shared connection.
At this point, without pretending to be an expert in Apple systems, I can only turn to some of you to ask if I could do it differently or if I used the correct procedure and the only one available.
