How to Create an Apple Airport Wireless Computer to Computer Network

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By Sum Dum Guy
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Apple Airport icon

Have you ever wanted to connect two Apple computers together wirelessly in order to exchange files or share a wired internet connection? Did you know that you can easily create an "ad hoc" network using built-in functionality in Apple's own Airport feature? These simple steps will show you how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

2 or more Airport equipped Apple Macintosh Computers

Step 1

Turn on the Airport feature on each of the Macintosh computers that you wish to include in your wireless computer to computer network. To do this, click on the Airport icon found in the upper right hand corner of the Apple menu bar.
Step 2

The Airport icon/symbol will vary in appearance depending upon whether your Mac's Airport function is ON, OFF or CONNECTED (joined) to a network. See accompanying image for a representation of each of icon variance and its meaning.
Step 3

Next, decide which Mac will be the "host" of your new computer to computer network. If you wish to share a wired internet connection, the computer you choose should be the Macintosh that is connected to the internet on your wired network. On that computer, click on the Airport icon in the menu bar and choose the "Create Network..." option from the list of available choices.
Step 4

In the window that appears, enter a name for your new wireless network (for this example, we'll use "My 1st Network"). You can leave the channel setting at the default setting (11), unless you have a good reason to change it. If you wish to require a password in order for a computer to join your new network (recommended), check the "Require Password" option.
Step 5

Choose a password. Depending upon the level of security that you desire (40-bit WEP or 128-bit WEP), your password will have to be either 5 characters long (40-bit) or 13 characters long (128-bit). Once you've decided upon the security type, enter your password in the two fields found in the window. After you have done this and the passwords match exactly, the "Ok" button will become available. Click it to move to the next step.
Step 6

Once you click the "Ok" button, your Mac will create your network. You will know that your network has been created once the Airport icon in the menu bar changes to have a dark background and an icon of a small Mac appears inside it. See accompanying image to view an example of this icon state.
Step 7

Now that your network has been created, you can now join other Macintosh computers to your new network. To do this, click on the Airport icon in the menu bar of the participating Mac computer and select the network named "My 1st Network". If applicable, enter the password when prompted. Assuming that you enter the password correctly, your Mac should connect to the network and its Airport icon state should appear to be "joined" as shown in Step #2 above.
Step 8

In order to share files, make sure all computers participating on the network have "File Sharing" turned on. This option can be found in the "Sharing" section of your Mac's System Preferences. See accompanying image for this step.
Step 9

Congratulations! You created your first wireless computer-to-computer network. Repeat these steps for each Mac that you wish to include.

Comments

stayfunny said

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on 10/14/2009 When I do step #7 the same icon as in step #6 appears on my wireless computer. And when I activate internet sharing on the wired computer, the icon from step #6 disappears. It's not working. Help!!

skillet said

on 6/8/2009 Is there a way to have it automatically do this? I have my computer set up to automatically connect to remote drives. However I can't get it to broadcast wireless on Leopard 10.5.7 on start up.