Back to Mac, Mobile Me, Home Network

So, I currently have an iMac in the home with an email account in my name. My wife is getting a MacBook. I would like to enable Back to My Mac on the iMac and also allow the MacBook to have it's own email account but be looking at the calendar and address book of the iMac. Is that possible?

Does anyone know if I am able to do this? I have never networked a Mac before.

From the tenor or our question i assume that you are still exploring the world of Mac. If i where starting with an iMac and MacBook and wanted to have identical info on both, then i would get a MobileMe account and synch the computers thru that. The fact that it updates in real time is a real timesaver. It is possible to use Back to my Mac for remote access but not something i would try to outline thru these pages - my limitation! Screen share with iChat does allow easy access to a remote mac for making changes etc.

Actually, that's the thing - I have a Mobile Me account now, and it is tied to my email address and home iMac. My wife is getting the MacBook and we want to make sure we are only keeping one calendar and address book (on the iMac), but she would like to be able to access her own email on the MacBook instead of the email currently tied to the Mobile Me account.

Can I just add an additional email account and use the existing Mobile Me account or do I need to purchase another Mobile Me account?

Will my wife be able to access the calendar and address book through the applications by synching with Mobile Me or will she only be able to view through a web browser?

Thanks

If you want your wife to have a separate @me.com mailbox then you'll need another MobileMe account. You can upgrade your existing MobileMe account to a family plan. That's cheaper than a second full MobileMe subscription.

You can then setup another user account for your wife on both Macs. Her MobileMe will sync between them. If you want to have your information on the Macbook you'll create an account there and setup MobileMe (add your MobileMe information to the new account) as well.

To summarize, you have two computers each with two accounts and two MobileMe accounts. That doesn't get you the shared calendar and contacts however. Sharing your calendar and address book between accounts is easy via MobileMe. Whoever publishes the calendar will be the owner and the other person will have read-only access to the information. You can (optionally) both edit contacts in Address Book however.