[knarley]

I'm waiting on my new 12" Powerbook to arrive in the mail along with an Airport Extreme base station (XBS)... This waiting has got me thinking about my set up at home here.
I have a 1 GHz iMac with a soon to be added Extreme card in it. The 12" PB will have an Extreme card... Both those computers will have 10.2.6
I also have a Bondi iMac Rev a running Mac OS 8.6
I have a Motorola 4220 Cable Modem.
I figure that I'll be plugging the ethernet cord from the modem into the WAN port on the XBS. I also think I'll be plugging in an HP Deskjet 3220 (specs say this model works) into the USB port on the XBS for printer sharing. I think this setup will take care of the 12" PB and the 1 GHz iMac for file sharing, internet use, and printing. I had not previously considered adding the old iMac into the configuration.
However, with time on my hands I've been wondering.... since the XBS will be near the Bondi iMac could I connect it from its ethernet jack to the XBS's LAN port? Or what I'm really asking is can I do file sharing, internet, and print sharing with that ethernet connected iMac as well? Or does having OS 8.6 limit me here? Is there any software or setting changes I need to make for networking that 8.6 iMac to make this setup work?
Thanks for any help,
Carlton

[car1son]

I have an OS 8.6 PPC hanging off the Ethernet cable of an Airport Base Station (the non-Extreme, stodgy "snow" variety.) I use the 8.6 Mac for internet access and file sharing with the airport-enabled Macs. (You need to turn on AppleTalk on the OS X Network pane to file-share with 8.6, since it doesn't have file sharing over TCP/IP builtin, just AppleTalk over Ethernet.)
I'm not sure about printer sharing; Airport Stodgy doesn't have that.

[knarley]

Well, a somebody told me they don't think the 8.6 machine will be able to do printer sharing. They think I would need OS 9 for that. Which I guess won't be a problem, I have an Epson printer hooked to it now, so that can remain. I don't have enough ram to upgrade the OS, and I don't even want to think about having to crack that thing open to get in there and do it especially when it is running very stable right now....don't fix it if it ain't broke right!
On to other news... my 12" PB extra battery arrived in the mail today. The computer won't be here for 3 more days....but I've got the battery... sigh. I'll admit though even the battery was exciting to open. Very sleek, heavier than I thought it would be though. It felt like it was at least a pound. Makes me wonder if when they say the PB is 4.6 pounds or whatever if that includes the battery or not. It had that "new Macinstosh" smell.
Anyway, the XBS is supposed to arrive this afternoon and the extreme card to put in my 1 GHz iMac should be here tomorrow... I think I'm going to get everything backwards of how it should be.
extra battery->extreme card->XBS->PB

[knarley]

Update on my set up. The powerbook is here and so is the Airport extreme.
I connected the 8.6 iMac to the LAN port with ethernet on the XBS. I connected the cable modem to the WAN port with an ethernet cable. I connected the Epson printer to the USB port on the XBS. I left the HP printer connected to the OS X iMac and enabled printer sharing on the computer.
I am able to network all three computers through the XBS. The OS X iMac and the new powerbook recoginzes all computers. I have been unable to get the 8.6 iMac to recognize the other 2 though. Which is okay because I can just move files by using one of the newer computers. Both the newer computers can access both printers fine.
At this point I have not tried printing with the 8.6 printer. Since it's a very low priority to print from that computer at this point for me I'm not worried about it.
Finally all three computers are surfing the internet just fine.
Carlton

[d00d]

You won't be able to print to the printer attached to the ABS. It uses Rendevouz to accomplish this feat and Rendevouz is an OS X only technology, further, it's a Jaguar only technology.