Will it work? PC & Mac

[gerryandersson]

Hello, I have a question about my home network.
At home we have 3 PCs conected via a router so we can share an internet conection. Can I conect a Mac to one of these computers directly (or at all) or conect the Mac to the router and a PC directly to the Mac (so the Mac also gets internet)?

 

[dickie]

If you have two ethernet cards in one of your PCs then you can just plug your Mac into the spare one. Then you need to set up internet sharing in your My Network Places (right click on the connection you want to share, its in there somewhere).

 

[AlanH]

All Macs since about ten years ago have a built in ethernet interface. You should be able to connect the Mac directly to the router if you have a spare port, and set it to get its address config the same way as the PCs - via DHCP if that's what you are using. It will then be able to get to the Internet.

If the Mac is running Mac OS X then it should also be able to "see" the PCs if they are sharing data. You may need to join the Mac to their Workgroup. If so here are the instructions from Apple Help:

Open Directory Access (in Applications/Utilities).
If necessary, click the lock icon and type the name and password for an administrator user on your computer.
Double-click SMB/CIFS in the list and type the new workgroup name in the dialog, then click OK.

HTH, Come back if you need more ...

 

[Speedo]

Does your router not have 4 ports? If so you should just be able to plug in the MAC and go. If you need to connect 5 comps total you'll need to put a second NIC in one of them and make a network bridge, IIRC.

 

[AlanH]

... put a second NIC in one of them and make a network bridge, IIRC.

Easier to get a cheap hub and extend the existing four ports.

 

[gerryandersson]

Thank you for your help everyone, I think I can do it

Edit:
In case some one was wondering...
(red = PC, blue = Router and cables, Yellow = Mac, Black = badly drawn house)

 

[Padma]

ANy reason to not just run another cable from the router to the Mac? Most routers I have seen have a minimum of 4 ports.

 

[AlanH]

If the path from the Mac to the router is too long to run another cable I suggest getting a cheap ethernet hub to share the cable you already have to room 3. plug the existing cable into the upstreeam on the new hub and plug the Mac and PC in room 3 in tthe hub. You can get small hubs for peanuts these days.

 

[Speedo]

If the path from the Mac to the router is too long to run another cable

No real reason that should be the case. Cat5 can be run 100m.

 

[gerryandersson]

If the path from the Mac to the router is too long to run another cable I suggest getting a cheap ethernet hub to share the cable you already have to room 3. plug the existing cable into the upstreeam on the new hub and plug the Mac and PC in room 3 in tthe hub. You can get small hubs for peanuts these days.

I think I will go with this, I found alot of different hubs on the webb page of a computer store not far from home at about 16-20 US dollars.

Thanks everyone for your help.