Best way to network to Macs

Hi

I have an iMac and a Mac Book Pro, one of the only things that annoys me about these two is the way that they communicate with each other.

I'm currently just clicking on the iMac from the shared section of the finder on my Mac Book Pro, this does work but every time I want to connect it seems to take ages and it always asked me for a password even though I've clicked remember in keychain.

When connecting to my Dads Windows PC using this method it's fine but not between the Macs. After waiting a while they usually do connect but the connect is sometimes broken.

Is this the best way to network the two together? I'm just using a Wireless router.

Although I now hate using windows this is one aspect that does work, once you have mapped a network drive it will just connect if both machine are on.

Am I doing something wrong, is there a better way ?

I haven't tried this myself, but you could create a desktop shortcut and see if that works better for you.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/875869.html

Basically add it in finder, and then drag the saved location to your desktop.

This comes from my background in Cisco networking... but I found that by assigning static IP's to everything and putting my router in charge of assigning hostnames, my connection speeds between devices on my internal network were nearly-instant. I'm not sure how network-savvy you are, but if you or someone you know can set this up properly for you, it may solve your problem.

Also, if you want connected shared devices to show up on your desktop instead of in the "Shared" sidebar of Finder, all you have to do is go to Finder preferences and check the box labeled "Connected Servers" under the 'General' section.

Hope this helps,

Not that network savvy but I do know alot about PC's and quite a lot about Macs.

Would I assign the IP address for each Mac in my router config and then use this in the network settings on each Mac?

Could you just tell me a bit more.

You would want to set it on each Mac in your network. Not on the router itself, although you might be able to set up reservations in DHCP on the router. However you'd probably have an easier time just setting it on each Mac.