One of our newest members here and new to the world of MorphOS, is having trouble setting up an Internet connection to his G4 MacMini.

Apparently, he only has a wireless connection to his Windows computer, which I think receives this connection using a USB wireless NIC. I don't know the exact specifics of where this wireless signal is coming from, but it appears that there is no modem or router with a wired connection inside of his residence and he is just getting a wireless signal to his USB wireless NIC to provide him with his connection to the Internet (maybe it is a publicly provided wireless signal, I don't know or care).

He is having trouble getting his Windows computer to share it's Internet connection by connecting his MorphOS computer to the Windows computer with a cross-over Ethernet cable.

Do any of you have any tips on how to do this? My only Windows computer is not working properly, so I cannot even attempt to duplicate what he is doing, so I could advise him on what to try.

It is much easier when using another Mac computer to share an Internet connection, as they do not even need the cross-over cable and can share their Internet connection just by clicking on the check-box for sharing Internet connection in the Preferences program and using a standard Ethernet cable between the two computers. I have done this several times between any of my wireless equipped Mac computers and any of my MorphOS running computers, without any troubles. It is a very easy way to obtain a wireless Internet connection for MorphOS, except that you have to run two computers to do it.

Thanks in advance for any advice any of you can offer.

For me, working with Windows and any of it's Ethernet, or Wireless settings, is a nightmare, so apparently this other MorphOS user is having the same problems that I have experienced in the past with Windows.

[ Edited by amigadave 06.03.2012 - 08:43 ]

Specifically, the WinXP machine has the IP address 192.168.0.1 and the MorphOS machine has 192.168.0.102. I'm able to ping from each machine to the other successfully.
But when I look at the list of computers in the workgroup, on the XP machine, the MorphOS computer isn't showing up. Neither are any of its drives.
From the MorphOS side, none of the XP machine's drives seem to be mounted (eg. when using Info command to list mounted drives), and trying to use OWB to go to a website gives "Error 6: can't resolve host name".
The workgroup is named WORKGROUP. How do I change the workgroup name in MorphOS? is this the cause of the problem?
WinXP side is set up OK because I can access drives and share net connection between XP and Win7 machines.

Check your firewall on Windows side. Also, try to visit a site using an ip addr, if it works then you need to adjust your DNS ip in MorphOS network settings. For sharing thing, you need samba or at least smbfs on MorphOS side, WORKGROUP is probably an env var. I suggest to use FTP first - it's a bit easier to setup. I was using this kind of connection ~5yrs ago without much trouble.

@amigadave

You don't need a cross-cable unless you use some really old hw, you can click everything in Windows too, though it's more messy.

[ Edited by Korni 07.03.2012 - 06:09 ]

That's not working either, pings are never coming back and OWB gives error 7 (couldn't connect to server).

Unfortunately, Windows XP is very finnicky when you are sharing an internet connection. I have seen it stop working for no obvious reason even when only other Windows XP systems were involved.

I had the same thing set up a while back. I had trouble setting the up the pc network to share the internet and get it working on MorphOS on my MacMini.
Then I searched for apps that could do this more easy, and found a program named NAT32
Just google it and you should be able to find it. Now there is a v2 available, but I have only tried the old version. Its a bit of setting up, but there was a guide so I got it working after not to much trouble.
The program makes your pc work just like a router, and can work with many network interfaces.
The downloadable version is a demo version, so it will only work for 30 minutes for each session. You will need to restart the program to get another 30 minutes. I think sometimes the best thing was to restart the pc as well.

But after using that a while, I had another go at trying to set up the internet sharing within XP, and then it suddenly worked without using the NAT32 application. But sadly I have no memory of how I made that work.

Anyway, have a go with NAT32, its free to try. And if you get it working and want it to run continuously, then register it to remove the 30 min timeout.

Just a short info, if you choose to try NAT32v2.
At least on my XP here, when launching the config utility, it will tell you it will start in winsock mode due to a missing driver. The window that then shows is very confusing and give no clues about where to start. But there will be a small field named command, just enter the words: driver install
and press enter. It will request you to install the driver and ask you to reboot.
After reboot, restart the config utility again and you will get a more understandable configuration window to deal with.

So it should in theory be possible to set it up by only using Preferences? Is there a manual for MorphOS/Ambient? eg. a MorphOS equivalent to "OS3.9 The Book"? That should hopefully explain all the settings.

[ Edited by Minuous 12.03.2012 - 17:50 ]

As I wrote you before, once you can get your WinXP computer to act as a Internet server, like a router, there is nothing you need to set up on the MorphOS side.

It just works with the default settings of the MorphOS2.7 installation, IIRC.

And as I and others here have written, you don't need the cross-over cable, IF you can get your WinXP computer to act like a simple router to provide the Internet connection.

Sorry to see that you are still having trouble getting connected online with your new MorphOS2.7 computer.

I hope that the more knowledgeable members here can help you resolve the problem.

As I mentioned, the WinXP machine is already set up. I can connect my Win7 machine to it and play networked games (eg. WinArcadia), access files, websites, etc.
So the problem is purely on the MorphOS side...

Minuous,
Quote:

I am sorry but that does not mean much since you are talking about proprietary software from one and the same company that was specifically designed to be interoperable and in some cases work around technical issues of the other.

As has been explained before, if you would like to exchange files, you may have to install SAMBA on MorphOS, which is a free reimplementation of the SMB (Server Message Block) standard that is used by Windows for networking.


Quote:

Successfully using Windows 7 as a network client of a Windows XP machine is insufficient proof that the latter is configured correctly and ready to be used with alternative operating systems such as MorphOS, Linux, Android, etc.

As I personally mentioned, Windows XP even has issues with other Windows XP network clients when you share an internet connection.

>As has been explained before, if you would like to exchange files, you may have to install SAMBA on MorphOS, which is a free reimplementation of the SMB (Server Message Block) standard that is used by Windows for networking.

I've tried setting up Samba, however it doesn't work. The included instructions are very poor and it keeps talking about AmiTCP which I don't even have. As it is an alpha version the problems could be due to bugs in the software. Is there a newer version than http://aminet.net/comm/tcp/samba-3.0.4-morphos.tgz?

I've also looked at what very small amount of MorphOS documentation is included in the OS; there seems to be nothing about correct configuration of Preferences items.

[ Edited by Minuous 09.03.2012 - 16:27 ]

MorphOS' TCP/IP stack is a newer version of AmiTCP.
i.e. it is AmiTCP

Anyway, you have two completly separate issues:
- you want (AFAIU) to share some MorphOS files/directories using NetBIOS...
- you want to share your internet connexion. i.e. you want to use your Windows system as a gateway for your Mac mini

The NetBIOS issue is by far the most complex and indeed involve Samba. I would suggest you completly ignore it until you solve your other problems.

About using your PC as a router...
You explained your Mac mini can ping your PC. So it means you have working LAN betwen these two machines.

If your Mac mini can't ping some internet IP, it could be at least caused by two things :
- broken/misconfigured router
- misconfigured gateway and network mask on the MorphOS side

So, can you open MorphOS' network preferences and check :
- the IP address is 192.168.0.102
- the netmask is 255.255.255.0
- the gateway IP is 192.168.0.1

You could also check you have a working DNS on the second page.
f.e. you could test using google's DNS which is 8.8.8.8

Then you should be able to ping morph.zone if the router does its job.

By the way, do you use DHCP or static information?
Please try both. I can imagine some silly firewall (do you have one?) could block all traffic unless the Mac mini got a DHCP lease or something...

>So, can you open MorphOS' network preferences and check :
- the IP address is 192.168.0.102
- the netmask is 255.255.255.0
- the gateway IP is 192.168.0.1

>You could also check you have a working DNS on the second page.
f.e. you could test using google's DNS which is 8.8.8.8

>Then you should be able to ping morph.zone if the router does its job.

Thanks, I will do this and get back to you...

>By the way, do you use DHCP or static information?
Please try both. I can imagine some silly firewall (do you have one?) could block all traffic unless the Mac mini got a DHCP lease or something...

It's a static IP currently; if I have no luck with that I will try DHCP.

Im simple XP and MOS. I didnt read carefuly all (sorry) but I never had problem with share internet from PC with XP. XP take connection by WiFi. Then I plug CrossOver cable to NIC in MiniMac with MOS 2.7 and to PC with XP. Only in XP I set up in NetworkConnection for WiFi card setur ShareInternetForAnotherUSers and thats all. MOS2.7 auomaticly right away connect with internet...

Did You try boot MorphOS from cd and do it? (I fix a lot problems this way...)

[ Edited by MaveRickPL 08.03.2012 - 16:18 ]

I had the mini in that setup long time ago, before i had my wifi access point. I just shared connection on xp, and then it went trough.
Try to set up the ip adress manually on morphos, and the router address(the same of the win machine.

OK, it seems to be working now (via static IP)...I'm typing this on the MorphOS machine. I'm still not quite sure what I did to fix the issue. Booting from the MOS CD seemed to change all my settings, I changed the IP address to the correct one and then it worked Odd...

http://8.8.8.8 still doesn't work though, I assume it is supposed to bring up the Google search page but it doesn't. I guess that doesn't matter though.

Thanks to all who have helped out in this thread. Maybe in the future I will try to write some guide about how to set this all up, so no one else has to go through all this.

> http://8.8.8.8 still doesn't work though, I assume it is supposed
> to bring up the Google search page

No. As you've been told, 8.8.8.8 is the IP address of one of Google's Domain Name System servers. Thus, it's not supposed to be connected to via HTTP, obviously.

OK, I have the Win7 machine as 192.168.0.1 and the MOS machine as 192.168.0.61 via crossover cable; these machines can ping each other successfully. However the Internet connection sharing isn't working, OWB is giving error 6: "can't resolve host name". Is there some list of the necessary settings for the host and client machines to enable the Internet connection sharing to work?

Assuming all is ok on the Win7 side ('upgraded' from XP?), the only MorphOS settings required are:

IP Address (192.168.0.x)
Netmask (255.255.255.0)
Gateway (192.168.0.1).
DNS Server (8.8.8.8 as primary, 8.8.4.4 as secondary).

If you're setting a static IP address (eg 192.168.0.61) make sure this address is not used by any other device on the network.

If these do not provide you with a working internet access, you will need to look at something on the Windows side (assuming hardware is ok, cables are ok, network information provided is accurate, and no typos when entering data )

----------------------

Informative:

The 'gateway' is the IP address of the computer on the LOCAL NETWORK (ie the 192.168.0.x network in this case) which provides a route to the outside world - in this case, your Win7 IP address.

A DNS Server is the address for an online database which converts a website address (eg www.Morphzone.org) into an IP address (eg 101.102.103.104).
It's analogous to knowing someone's name and looking up their phone number in a directory.
Without this, you (your computer) may know the person (website)'s name, but have no way of dialling their number (connecting to their network location).
There are many available, Google's are pretty reliable and easy to remember (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). Your ISP will usually provide two DNS server adresses, but you don't have to use them.

(When using DHCP, the IP address, gateway and DNS server addresses are (usually) provided by the DHCP server.)

I have checked the MorphOS settings and they are as you describe, however I am still getting error 6 (can't resolve hostname). According to eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Connection_Sharing it is only possible if both machines are running Windows, I also don't see any way to set the workgroup name under MOS.

There's no need to set the workgroup name when setting up internet connection sharing. The workgroup name only comes into play when setting up filesharing.

If the (MorphOS) settings above are in place, then there's something on the Windows side that needs setting up/congfiguring.

Quote:

It doesn't say any such thing, it simply states that " ICS also was designed to connect only to Windows OS computers: computers on other operating systems will require different steps to be able to utilize ICS."

It may also be worth checking the IP address of your Windows 7 computer again (wired connection, not wireless one) since the same article states:
Quote:

Note that your Win7 box will have two IP addresses - one for the (wireless?) connection to the router, one for the wired connection to your MorphOS box. The relevent IP address is the wired one.

I got off the boat after XP, so have never battled with Windows 7... can't help that much on the detail of that side of things.

Apparently (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Networking-in-Windows-7-Starter) it's not possible to share a net connection without a router on this version of Windows.

Sorry to read that you are having problems with sharing your Internet connection with your MorphOS computer, from your Windows 7 host. Isn't there a way for you to connect the MorphOS computer to your ISP the same way you are connecting your Win7 computer to the ISP, even if you have to swap the Ethernet cable from one computer to the other, back and forth?