Hi all,

A week ago, when I was traveling with my MacBook and new iPod Touch, I  
made use of two features that allowed me to use my iPod Touch with my  
MacBook, even in the absence of a local Wi-Fi network:

• creating an ad hoc network between Mac and iPhone or iPod Touch
This lets you use free apps like the Apple Remote to control iTunes  
playback on your computer, or the NumberKey Free app from Balmuda to  
enter data into a spreadsheet program using your iPhone or iPod Touch  
as a numeric keypad.  You can pair the two devices and work  
independently of any network connection. (You can also use ad hoc  
network creation to connect two Mac computers in the absence of a  
wireless or wired network.) Instructions on creating an ad hoc network  
accompany the description of each app. (Basically, you navigate to the  
AirPort menu on your Status bar and choose the option to "Create  
Network…" instead of selecting a network to join.  Then you have your  
iPod Touch or iPhone join this network.)

• using my Mac as a wireless access point for my iPod Touch and  
sharing my wired (ethernet) connection with the iPod Touch.  This is  
also a more general way to share wired access with more than one  
computer through your Mac's Airport card by turning your Mac into a  
software base station.

The best description I've read of both these procedures is in the  
"Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network" guide from:

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/

They're actually side discussions to the main content of the guide,  
and the use of the Mac to share your internet connection with other  
devices and computers is described in one of the appendices of the  
Take Control guide under the subject of "Setting up a software base  
station".

However, if you want to read instructions on how to share your  
internet connection with an iPhone or iPod Touch, this is covered in a  
recent TUAW article, " Mac 101: Create a wireless network between Mac  
and iPhone" by Josh Carr, on Sep 25th 2009:

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/25/mac-101-create-a-wireless-network-between-mac-and-iphone/

You'll want to read this web page in DOM mode.  This saves me having  
to describe the procedure.  Anyone who has the "Take Control of Your  
802.11n AirPort Network", check Appendix C for a more extensive  
discussion that describes other options.  Note that you can also share  
your network with Windows computers, but you'll be told that when  
connecting to non-Apple Computers you can only assign a 40-bit WEP  
password.  Again, the appendix of the Take Control guide gives a more  
extensive discussion.

HTH.  Main result is that I was able to use streaming radio apps, news  
apps, etc. even when I didn't have a Wi-Fi  network.  One caveat is  
that for location finding apps, like "AroundMe", you need to type in  
your geographic location instead of trying to have the app locate  
you.  This is because the wi-fi based location identification relies  
on Skyhook's mapping of wi-fi towers, and your local MacBook access  
point won't be in their mapped data base.

Cheers,

Esther
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"MacVisionaries" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to