chapter 1: networking your mac and other peripherals · 336_9781118129616-bk06ch01.indd...

Chapter 1: Networking Your Mac and Other PeripheralsIn This Chapter✓ Creating a wired network

✓ Creating a wireless network

✓ Adding a printer to the network

Today, most households and small businesses have a few computers, a printer or two, a scanner, an Internet service, and maybe even an exter-

nal drive where files are backed up from each computer. (Be sure to read about the importance of backing up in Book III, Chapter 1.) You can connect and disconnect each computer to and from the peripheral devices (those are your printers, scanners, and such) when you want to use them, which would be a big hassle and time waster, or you can set up a network.

A network allows multiple computers to share files and devices such as printers, modems, or backup hard drives. When multiple computers con-nect to a network, they can share files almost as quickly and easily as copy-ing a file from one folder to another.

After you understand the concept of networking, networks aren’t so difficult to set up. In this chapter, we show you how to set up a simple wired or wire-less network — a few computers, a printer, and a modem.

Creating a Wired NetworkThe simplest wired network just connects two computers together, using either a FireWire cable or a cable that conforms to a networking cable stan-dard called Ethernet. Many Macs have Ethernet ports or both Ethernet and FireWire ports. The MacBook Air, which has neither, relies on a wireless (Wi-Fi) connection or a USB-Ethernet adapter. If you plug a FireWire cable or Ethernet cable into the FireWire or Ethernet ports of two Macs, you have a simple network, as shown in Figure 1-1.

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Figure 1-1: A simple network connects two Macs via FireWire or Ethernet cable.

Ethernet or FireWire cable

Most Macs shipped in 2011 and later have a Thunderbolt port (as of the date of writing the MacPro does not). Thunderbolt offers two-way 10 Gbps connec-tions, making it up to 12 times faster than FireWire and 20 times faster than USB. While the MacBook Air lacks both FireWire and Ethernet (meaning that you need a USB-Ethernet adapter), MacBook Airs shipped after July 2011 come equipped with the Thunderbolt port. Unless you have two brand-spanking-new Macs (congratulations!), you’ll have to stick with FireWire or Ethernet to set up your network for now. If one of your networked Macs is a new MacBook Air, you can add either a Thunderbolt-FireWire adapter or a Thunderbolt-Ethernet adapter, both available from Sonnet (www.sonnettech.com).

Ethernet cables are often identified by the speeds at which they can send data. The earliest Ethernet cables were Category 3 (or Cat 3) cables and could transfer data at 10 megabits per second (Mbps). The next generation of Ethernet cables was Category 5 and 5e (Cat 5/5e) cables, which could transfer data at 100 Mbps. Category 6 (Cat 6) cables transfer data at 1,000 Mbps or one gigabit per second (Gbit/s). With networking, speed is every-thing and Category 6a (Cat 6a) and Category 7 (Cat 7) transfer data at 10 Gbit/s. Category 7a reaches transfer speeds of 100 Gbit/s.

Connecting two computers is the simplest of networks, but even a home setting today typically has a printer that is shared by two computers.

Because it’s physically impossible to connect more than two devices together with a single cable, wired networks use something called a hub. Each device connects to the hub, which indirectly connects each device to every other device also connected to the hub, as shown in Figure 1-2.

An improved variation of a hub is called a switch. Physically, a hub and a switch both connect multiple devices in a single point (as shown in Figure 1-2).

With a hub, a network acts like one massive hallway that every computer shares. If many computers transfer data at the same time, the shared net-work can get crowded with data flowing everywhere, slowing the transfer of data throughout the network.


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Figure 1-2: A hub or switch allows multiple computers to connect together in a network.

Network hub or switch

With a switch, the switch directs data between two devices. As a result, a switch can ensure that data transfers quickly, regardless of how much data the other devices on the network are transferring at the time.

A variation of a switch is a router, which often adds a firewall by using Network Address Translation (NAT) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). NAT uses one set of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, which identify the com-puters and peripherals on the network for local network traffic, and another set for external traffic. This eliminates the risk of your device having the same address as another device. DHCP lets the router assign a different IP address to the same device each time it connects to the network.

Because routers cost nearly the same as ordinary hubs and switches, most wired networks rely on routers. So if you want to create a wired network of computers, you need:


780 Creating a Wired Network

✦ Two or more devices — computers, printers, scanners, modems, external drives

✦ A network switch or router with a number of ports equal to or greater than the number of devices you want to connect

✦ Enough cables to connect each device to the network switch or router

The speed of a wired network depends entirely on the slowest speed of the components used in your network. If you plan to use Cat 6 cables in your network, make sure your network switch is designed for Cat 6 cables. If not, you’ll have the fastest Ethernet cables connected to a slow network switch, which will run only as fast as the slowest part of your network.

After you connect your computers and peripherals to the hub or switch and turn everything on, follow these steps to make sure that your Mac is connected:

1. Choose Ú➪System Preferences.

The System Preferences window opens.

2. Click the Network icon in the Internet and Wireless section.

3. Beside Ethernet or FireWire, whichever type of network cable you used, you should see a green light and the word Connected under-neath, as shown in Figure 1-3.

4. To confirm that your printer is connected, click Show All to return to the main System Preferences window.

5. Click the Print & Scan icon in the Hardware section.

The Print & Scan preferences window opens, as shown in Figure 1-4. Printers and scanners connected to your network are listed on the left.

Figure 1-3: The Network System Preferences lets you connect to the network.


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Figure 1-4: The Print & Scan System Preferences shows printers that are connected to your network.

6. Repeat these steps on other Macs and devices on your network.

We explain how to set up file sharing in Book VI, Chapter 2. After you set up sharing, you see other computers on your network in the Finder under the Shared heading, as shown in Figure 1-5.

When you set up your wired network, your router may have wireless capabili-ties; if so, you can use an Ethernet cable to connect a computer or printer that stays in one place to the router, and then connect to the wireless network connection on your MacBook to work from your lawn chair in the garden, or connect from a desktop Mac in another room in the house. To do so, you turn on Wi-Fi and select the network as explained in the next section.

Figure 1-5: Computers on your network appear in the Finder under the Shared heading.

Computers on your network


782 Creating a Wireless Network

Creating a Wireless NetworkEssentially, a wireless network is no different from a wired network, except (of course) there are no wires; radio waves take their place. Wireless net-works can be a bit slower than wired networks, but unless you transfer big files, wireless is probably a tidier, and more cost-effective, alternative because there are no cables to buy or tack along the baseboard. We show you how to create two types of wireless networks:

✦ A peer-to-peer or computer-to-computer network that lets two or more Macs see each other without having to connect anything other than the computers themselves

✦ A wireless network using a wireless router and eventually a cable modem or DSL modem

Setting up a computer-to-computer networkYour Mac has a built-in AirPort Card, which lets it see other Macs and Wi-Fi–enabled devices just by turning on Wi-Fi and setting up a peer-to-peer or computer-to-computer network. Do the following:

1. Choose Ú➪System Preferences.

The System Preferences window opens.

2. Click the Network icon in the Internet and Wireless section.

3. Click Wi-Fi in the list on the left (refer to Figure 1-3).

4. Click Turn Wi-Fi On.

5. Click the pop-up menu by Network Name and choose Create Network.

A dialog opens, as shown in Figure 1-6.

6. Give your network a name, such as Home or Office.

7. Click the Security pop-up menu to assign a password to your network.

Passwords are always a good idea on wireless networks because they are easily viewed by other computers in the vicinity. You can choose a 40-bit WEP, which requires a 5-character password or a 128-bit WEP, which requires a 13-character password. The longer the password, the harder it is for someone to guess what your password is.

8. Click Create.

Your network now appears next to Network Name.

There are two ways to connect to the wireless network you created, described in the following lists.


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783Creating a Wireless Network

Figure 1-6: Create a computer-to-computer wireless network in Network System Preferences.

To connect to your wireless network from Network System Preferences, follow these steps:

1. Click Wi-Fi in the list on the left.

2. Click the Turn Wi-Fi On button in the upper right of the window.

3. Click the pop-up menu by Network Name and select the name of your network.

4. Enter the password, if you assigned one.

5. Click Join.

The Wi-Fi icon in the status bar now shows a computer rather than the Wi-Fi bars.

To connect to your wireless network from the Wi-Fi menu in the status bar, follow these steps:

1. Click the Wi-Fi pull-down menu in the status bar and drag to select Turn Wi-Fi On.

2. Click and drag the Wi-Fi pull-down menu again and select your network.

3. Enter the password, if you assigned one.

4. Click Join.

The Wi-Fi icon in the status bar changes to a computer.

Wireless printers also work on the computer-to-computer network. Follow the printer manufacturer’s instructions for using a wireless printer on your network.


784 Creating a Wireless Network

Setting up a wireless network with a routerWhen you use the computer-to-computer network, your Mac can’t connect to the Internet with Wi-Fi. Because your Mac has wireless capabilities, you probably want to connect to both the Internet and your network wirelessly.

As with the wired network, you need a router for your wireless network. Instead of managing physical cables, the wireless router manages signals based on the wireless network protocols. The earliest wireless networks followed a technical specification called 802.11b or 802.11a. Newer wireless equipment followed a faster wireless standard called 802.11g, and the latest (and fastest) standard (at the time of this writing) is 802.11n.

When setting up a wireless network, make sure that your router uses the same wireless standard as the built-in wireless radio or wireless adapter plugged into each of your devices. All new and recent Macs connect to Wi-Fi routers that use one to four types of the wireless 802.11 network standards.

You can buy any brand of wireless router to create a network, including Apple’s Airport Extreme Base Station. Any router you choose will come with specific software and instructions for setting up your network. The basic steps are to

1. Name your network and base station so devices on the network can then find and connect to your Wi-Fi network.

2. Set up a password. (WPA2 provides the most security.)

3. Define how you connect to the Internet. (You may need information from your Internet Service Provider for this step; you can also refer to Book II, Chapter 1.)

4. Add printers and/or external hard drives.

5. Configure your Macs for sharing, as explained in Book VI, Chapter 2.

Because of physical obstacles, wireless networks don’t always reach certain parts of a room or building, resulting in “dead spots” where you can’t con-nect wirelessly. Walls or furniture can disrupt the wireless signals. You can add a device called an access point, which picks up the signal and rebroad-casts it beyond the reach of the Wi-Fi router, extending your wireless net-work range.

The difference between an access point and a router is that the router is at the center of the network, allowing the computers to share printers, Internet con-nections, and external hard drives. The access point is what allows the devices with wireless capabilities to connect to the network from a greater distance.


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785Connecting and Choosing a Printer

Connecting and Choosing a PrinterOut of the box, Mac OS X comes with a number of special files called printer drivers, which tell your Mac how to communicate with most popular brands of printer models. When you buy a new printer, it often comes with a CD that contains a printer driver that you can install to unlock special features that the Mac’s built-in drivers might not take advantage of.

To access a wired network, someone must physically connect a computer to the network with a cable. However, connecting to a wire-less network can be done from another room, outside a building, or even across the street. As a result, wireless networks can be much less secure because a wireless network essen-tially shoves dozens of virtual cables out the window, so anyone can walk by and connect into the network.

The practice of connecting to unsecured wire-less networks with malicious intentions is war driving (also war flying, war walking, or war boat-ing, depending on how you move around). The basic idea behind war driving is to drive around a city and keep track of which areas offer an unse-cured wireless network. After getting connected to an unsecured wireless network, an intruder can wipe out files, capture personal information, or interfere with the network’s operation.

When you create a wireless network, you can make your network more secure by taking advantage of a variety of security measures and options. The simplest security measure is to use a password that locks out people who don’t know the password. There are three types of passwords used for wireless networks:

✓ WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is an older protocol and offers minimal (almost

useless) protection. Being an older pro-tocol, it may not work on all your devices. Passwords use either five or 13 characters.

✓ WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is better, as it changes the encryption key for each data transmission.

✓ WPA2 is the best choice because it uses the more secure Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to encrypt the password when it’s transmitted.

For further protection, you can also use encryp-tion. Encryption scrambles the data sent to and from the wireless network. Without encryption, anyone can intercept information sent through a wireless network (including passwords). Still another security measure involves configur-ing your wireless network to let only specific computers connect to the wireless network. By doing this, an intruder can’t gain access to the wireless network because his or her computer is not approved to access the network.

Ultimately, wireless networking requires more security measures simply because it offers potential intruders the ability to access the network without physically being in the same room, house, or building. Wireless networks can be as safe as wired networks — as long as you turn on security options that can make your wireless network as secure as possible.

The hazards of wireless networking


786 Connecting and Choosing a Printer

Check the support section of the printer manufacturer’s website to see whether a newer version of the printer installation software has become available. After you run the installer, you can check the website every now and then to see whether an even newer version (than the one you’ve installed) is available. Some installers place a print utility in the Dock and you may be able to set up the print utility to check automatically for updates.

Making your Mac work with your printer involves a two-step process:

1. You must connect your printer to your Mac, either physically with a USB cable or network connection (such as a USB or Ethernet connection to a router) or wirelessly to a Wi-Fi-enabled printer that is connected to the same Wi-Fi network your Mac connects to.

2. You must install the proper printer driver on your Mac (if you don’t want to use the supplied driver that comes with Mac OS X, or if your Mac doesn’t have a driver for it). After you connect your printer to your Mac and install or select the correct printer driver, you can then print documents and control your printer’s options.

You can download additional printer drivers (and drivers for other types of hardware, such as scanners and pressure-sensitive tablets) directly from Apple’s website (www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers) or from the printer manufacturer’s website.

After you physically or wirelessly connect a printer to your Mac and install its printer driver, you may need to take one additional step and tell your Mac that this particular printer is connected. To get your Mac to recognize a connected printer, follow these steps:

1. Choose Ú➪System Preferences and click the Print & Scan icon in the Hardware section to open the Print & Scan preferences pane.

2. Click the Add (+) button, as shown in Figure 1-7.

Note: Your Mac might list local printers (printers directly attached to your Mac), as well as printers linked to your Mac via a network.

3. Click a printer name in the Printers list and click the Default Printer pop-up menu to choose the new printer (or another) your Mac’s appli-cations will always print to (unless you specify otherwise).

4. Click the Close button to close the Print & Scan preferences pane.


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Figure 1-7: The Print & Scan preferences pane lets you add or delete printers.


788 Book VI: Mac Networking


chapter 1: networking your mac and other peripherals · 336_9781118129616-bk06ch01.indd...

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