I have a PowerBook G4 and an iMac G3 that connect to the Internet via an Apple Airport wireless system.
How do I go about getting the two computers to ‘talk’ to each other. That is, suppose I want to transfer files between them. Is there any way to do it without buying hardware?
This article has some basics on networking Macs for file sharing.
The crux of the procedure seems to be:
[quote]
[ul]
[li] Next go to your File Sharing control panel and enter a name for your old computer, a password, and user name (if none are listed.)[/li][li] Click on “Start” to enable file sharing. You do not need to turn on “Program Linking.”[/li][li] On the new Mac, open up Chooser.[/li][li] Click on “AppleShare” and your olds Mac should show up.[/ul][/li][/quote]
Sure.
Just turn of File Sharing in the Sharing pane of System preferences.
Log into one machine from the other using the user name and password from the machine you are logging into.
OK, I went to Sharing. I had to kind of figure a couple of things out, but I was able to connect to the PowerBook from the iMac. Thought I’d copy my iTunes over. Estimated time: 5 hours. Yikes!
Just to make sure: No one outside can access my computers unless they have A) my wireless network password, and B) my computer’s password. Right?
Right. Choose your passwords well. Combine two unexpected words, or words and numbers or other typographical symbols. Use WPA or WPA2 instead of WEP for the wireless connection encryption.
Or are considerably more interested in getting in than you are at keeping them out, yes.
Also, in a pinch, if you have the new iChat, you can do screen sharing, where you can have the desktop of one computer show up on the other. Then you can maneuver the files. there’s also file sharing through iChat Theatre, which is part of Leopard!
Try DropCopy. Share files easily and the contents of you clipboard.
I have iChat on both computers, but I haven’t used it. When I click on it it says it’s for video conferencing, and I don’t have anyone to videoconference with so I’ve never configured it.
The Share option is exactly what I needed. The only problem I ran into was when I tried to copy my iTunes library to the 2001 iMac with its 100GB HD. Not enough room on the drive. Oh, well. I can move a selection of songs and any guests using that room can listen to what’s on it.
Are you aware that you can elect to ‘share’ music within the iTunes preferences (I forget the specifics and am at work right now so can’t check the details), and it will automatically gather tracks from other Macs or PCs running iTunes on the network?
I have the ‘share music’ option turned on.
Turn off one computer. Connect them with Firewire. Turn on the computer while holding down the “T” key. The computer will come up as a hard drive on the the first computers desktop. Copy all you want, much faster than wireless.
Are you saying that you still aren’t able to share songs between the two machines or that sharing the songs isn’t what you’re trying to accomplish?
Hell, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing in this thread. I’m a PC.
By turning Sharing on I can access songs from my PowerBook while I’m on the iMac. I haven’t tried playing a song on iTunes on the iMac while the file is on the PowerBook, but I have copied files from the PowerBook to the iMac and have tested iTunes by starting one song.
I rennovated the back bedroom. It has a bed with drawers, wardrobe, TV, DVD player, desk, chair, alarm clock, and the iMac with wireless Internet. A nice little guest room. But then I thought it would be nice if a guest could listen to music. One could play the CD in the DVD player, but iTunes would be much more convenient and has Shuffle mode. So the exercise is to copy songs from one machine to the other. Too bad about the small hard disc in the iMac.
I’m sorry to be dense, but I’m feeling like I’m missing an essential element here.
You want the iMac user in the guest room to be able to listen to songs via iTunes [Frink]with the shuffling and the interface and the oh-so-convenient[/Frink] … sorry … but the songs are on the PowerBook and the iMac’s hard drive hasn’t got room for them. And you’ve shared the songs, and it works (“By turning Sharing on I can access songs from my PowerBook while I’m on the iMac”). So what’s the problem again?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No problem. I just can’t copy all of the songs over because of the HD size. Inconvenient, but not a problem.
The problem (‘How do I get my computers to talk to each other?’) was answered in your first post. 
Kool and the Gang. 