wireless with no router

A friend of mine has his Imac set up to "broadcast" wifi in is house. That's the best way I can describe it. He has No wireless router. I can take my laptop overthere or my iphone and connect via wifi. Only apples can connect. his wife's pc can see the wifi but not connect. how can i do that

He possibly has either an airport express or extreme which he's using. An iMac or any other Mac for that matter, has no way to "broadcast or generate a wireless signal" without some sort of add on device. Go to the following web site and look.

Apple - Wi-Fi - Which Wi-Fi Base Station are you?

Regards.

ok this thread inspired me to this (related) question: If I wanted to connect 2 laptops, maybe even my Mac with a Windows laptop, how would I need to set-up my Airport?? would I just use a static IP on both and hope they will see each other? Or use my airport as dhcp?

chscag said:

He possibly has either an airport express or extreme which he's using. An iMac or any other Mac for that matter, has no way to "broadcast or generate a wireless signal" without some sort of add on device. Go to the following web site and look.

Apple - Wi-Fi - Which Wi-Fi Base Station are you?

Regards.

Click to expand...

No, he has no base station at all.

the new iMac has a built-in AirPort Extreme so that's what he's using, definately

Apple - iMac - Tech Specs

in System Preferences>Sharing there is Web sharing and Internet sharing ... check it out

The iMac has a built in Airport Extreme wireless card for reception of wireless signals. It doesn't broadcast the signal. For that, a wireless router is needed, or one of the Apple models as above.

My MacBook likewise has built in Airport Extreme wireless but it too needs a source of signal for reception.

I still don't know where the OP got his information from.....

Apple - MacBook - Technical Specifications - All the specs for the 13-inch MacBook notebook

Regards.

chscag said:

The iMac has a built in Airport Extreme wireless card for reception of wireless signals. It doesn't broadcast the signal. For that, a wireless router is needed, or one of the Apple models as above.

My MacBook likewise has built in Airport Extreme wireless but it too needs a source of signal for reception.

I still don't know where the OP got his information from.....

Apple - MacBook - Technical Specifications - All the specs for the 13-inch MacBook notebook

Regards.

Click to expand...

I got this information from using twice a week for the last 9 months. My neighbor sets up commercial wireless networks (for PC's) and he said that it is entirely possible. I forget the term he used but he said any mac running osx should be able to do it. I'll just have to check my friends computer a lot closer and see what all his settings are or have his computer guy set mine up the same way.

scathe said:

the new iMac has a built-in AirPort Extreme so that's what he's using, definately

Apple - iMac - Tech Specs

in System Preferences>Sharing there is Web sharing and Internet sharing ... check it out

Click to expand...

Thanks, that's exactly what it is. It's working perfectly!!!

yup web sharing is sweet, i was playing around with it today, and it works relatively well, cheap router alternative

hi guys, i have managed to get my imac and my iphone to connect wirelessly but my iphone still cant use the internet with this connection. any ideas?
thanks

maz94protege said:

yup web sharing is sweet, i was playing around with it today, and it works relatively well, cheap router alternative

Click to expand...

You sure you did not mean internet sharing which works kinda with limited range but web sharing everyone will be looking at the same page.

OUinLA said:

A friend of mine has his Imac set up to "broadcast" wifi in is house. That's the best way I can describe it. He has No wireless router. I can take my laptop overthere or my iphone and connect via wifi. Only apples can connect. his wife's pc can see the wifi but not connect. how can i do that

Click to expand...

Any recent Macintosh can be used as a wireless router.

Here is a tutorial on how to do it:
How to Use Your Mac as a Wireless Router | Macinstruct

This is a great solution if you have a Wi-Fi-only iPad or iPod Touch!

The downside is that if the Mac that you are using as your wireless router is turned off, all of the other Macs or Internet-connected devices in your house will have no access to the Internet.

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Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
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