Connect AppleTV to iMac wirelessly without Router

[BLAZN420]

I've been searching the forums for a bit and could not find any specific information regarding this topic.

Basically I just got an Apple TV last night and was trying to connect it directly to my iMac using the iMac's 802.11n Airport Card. I created a network with the airport card. But my Apple TV could not find the newly created network even when I manually entered the network name.

After a while I decided to just let it connect to my wireless G router. Aside from 54mbs being painfully slow to sync my movies, I found that it connects and disconnects and never completes a sync. Eventually I just connected a ethernet cable directly to the router for the initial sync.

So basically I was wondering if anyone had any success connecting there Apple TV directly to there MAC wirelessly using the internal airport card on there mac.

 

[BLAZN420]

I did some more tinkering and I figured out where I went wrong, I set up the network on the Airport Card but I did not share the ethernet through the airport. Once I did that the network appeared on iTV and I was able to sync directly from the internal iMac Airport to the Apple TV. 802.11n is impressively fast.

 

[Jackcu]

I think I have the opposite problem. I wanted my Apple TV to wirelessly connect to my router, but it couldn't find it. While trying to figure out what was wrong, I turned on the wireless on my iMac (it is wired to the router via ethernet) and it connected with no problem.

Strange.

Jack.

 

[BLAZN420]

Check your router settings, some routers dont broadcast there SSID and it wont show on the list. Did you try to manual enter your router information from the apple tv menu?

 

[laloosh]

Thanks to BLAZN420 for the solution. Here is a more detailed work up of solving the problems for noobies like me:

Here's how to use your Mac to share your internet connection with your AppleTv:

Make sure you're connected to the internet via something other than the AirPort card (i.e. Ethernet).

Turn on Internet Sharing:

Go to System Preferences, click on the Sharing icon, then click on the Internet tab.

Change the Share your connection from: pop-up to 'Built-in Ethernet.'

Under the To computers using section, check the AirPort box.

Click Airport options...

Enter an easy name such as nds. Leave all the security options blank -- implementing security is an exercise left to the reader -- then click OK.

Click Start in the Internet Sharing panel.

Apple TV should now see the newly created network. If it does not automatically connect to ITunes:

Close ITunes. Select Terminal program under Applications->Utilities->Terminal. Type "Ping X.X.X.X" (The "X" represents the DHCP address which can be found on the Apple TV it usually looks like 10.0.1.2.) Press return. You should see the .ms connection speed:

64 bytes from 10.0.2.2: icmp_seq=909 ttl=64 time=21.025 ms


Reopen ITunes and after a moment the Apple TV should appear in the devices menu and start synching.

Enjoy!