How to Connect a MacBook With Another Laptop
Connecting a MacBook to another Macintosh laptop is usually as simple as connecting a cable between the two computers and turning them on. You can also connect a MacBook to a non-Macintosh laptop, but the easiest way to do this is by using a wireless connection. The MacBook is capable of hosting a limited area computer-to-computer connection with its pre-installed Airport Extreme wireless card.
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Instructions
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FireWire or Ethernet Networking
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Turn the "second" computer off. Connect the two computers to each end of a FireWire cable. If one computer doesn't have a FireWire port, you can also use an Ethernet cable to connect the two computers.
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Turn the second computer on while holding down the "T" key. This activates the second computer in question as a terminal or target disk; it will show up on the desktop of the main computer as a second hard drive. This only works if you use a FireWire connection; if you have created an Ethernet connection between the two computers, simply turn both of them on.
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3
Manipulate the information from either computer via the primary MacBook if you're using a FireWire connection. If you're using an Ethernet connection you can use either computer as the main terminal, and you'll need to select the "Sharing" pane of your System Preferences panel and enable the "Internet Sharing" feature on the MacBook with the Ethernet box checked.
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Click the small "eject" button next to the target disk in your Finder display to disconnect the two computers. Alternatively, you can locate the icon for the target computer on your desktop and drag it to the desktop trash bin to disconnect the two computers. This is only necessary for the FireWire method.
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Press the power button on the second computer to power it off. The primary computer can stay powered on throughout the whole procedure.
Wireless Method
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Click on the Airport/wireless icon in your MacBook's menu bar and select "Turn Airport On" if it's not already on.
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Click on the Airport icon again and select "Create Network..." Follow the prompts given to create a computer-to-computer network, with your MacBook as the host.
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Open the Sharing pane of the System Preferences dialogue for your MacBook, click on the "Internet Sharing" option and select your wireless network to enable the file-sharing feature.
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Power up the second laptop and position it as near to the MacBook as possible--the computer-to-computer Airport connection is only good for a very limited distance. Next, turn on the second laptop's wireless receiver and connect it to the Airport network you set up.
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Share files back and forth between the computers as desired. You can stop sharing at any point by going back to the Sharing pane of your MacBook's System Preferences panel and turning off the Internet Sharing option.
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