Q: Can mini-Macs communicate peer-to-peer using bluetooth?

Whickwithy wrote:

Can mini-Mac communicate peer-to-peer using bluetooth?

I do not know.  There is an entry in System Preferences -> Network for bluetooth devices, but that may be limited to tethering to a cell phone for internet access.  I'm just not sure.  You can experiment with the Network setup at the minimum.

<OS X Yosemite: Connect to the Internet with a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone>

If so, can one use X11 to do so?  Is X11, effectively, a cross-windows application?  Does it use error correction for the transfers?

If you can get a network connection, AND if you can get X11 to talk, it would have to be TCP/IP connection, and the TCP protocol provides reliable transfer.

Just checking, but you do know that OS X does NOT use X11 as its windowing technology.  You can use XQuartz for X11 usage with a Unix or Linux system.  But you are not going to be able to tell a typical Mac application that its DISPLAY server is over on that other system.  The best you can do with OS X is use screen sharing to view the apps running on the remote system.

NOTE: Bluetooth is not a fast transport, and X11 is a very chatty protocol.  If you do get X11 windows displayed across Bluetooth, it may not be as responsive as using a WiFi or Ethernet connection.  Not having done anything like this, I'm just speculating.

If you can get a connection, then chances are you can do ANY kind of network operation across it that the Mac normally supports.

Why don't you tell us what you are trying to do. Maybe we can then help you. Are you trying to transfer files? Are you trying to remote desktop? Are you trying to ...

X11 is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on UNIX-like computer operating systems

From my understanding of your post I think Back to my Mac, TeamViewer, or VNC is what you need. You can connect to, display the desktop. run apps, and use the Internet from your LAN connected computer to the main computer. The second computer would need to be connected to your LAN using wifi or Ethernet. Bluetooth is not a good networking solution.

A Mac Pro would be overkill, unless you had serious video and graphics processing work to do (or similar very intense CPU work load).

To view either system from the other, go with Screen Sharing, which is built-in to OS X.

But first you need to make a connection between the 2 systems.  I did find something that might work, BUT it will violate your keeping the Mac off the internet.  It is Internet Sharing can share your internet connection via Bluetooth.

So you would setup one Mac to do internet sharing via Bluetooth, then on the other Mac use System Preferences -> Netwok -> Bluetooth to connect to the PAN (Personal Area network) server.

A) I have NOT tried this.

B) It would share the internet.

HOWEVER, I guess if you setup the Internet sharing on the NON-internet Mac and has the Mac with internet access use Bluetooth to connect to that Mac I guess it would keep the one Mac off the internet.  Then again, you would have established the internet capable Mac as not talking to the ISP, but routing all traffic to the isolated Mac instead, which would go no where.

BUT BUT BUT, you could setup up 'route' command on the internet capable Mac to vector only some traffic to the isolated Mac and the rest to your ISP router.  Google "OS X route command examples".

Again, I have not done any of this, and it is all wild speculation.  Also forget X11 unless you are actually using some specific X11 only program.  You will use Screen Sharing to see and interact with the other Mac's screen, and you will use File Sharing to move files around.  Both of which are built-in to OS X via the System Preferences -> Sharing control panel

A peer to peer network is an Ad-Hoc network. I think you are coming up with solutions rather than first identifying the requirement or issue. You are over complicating things.

As I originally posted, I think your best bet is to use Back to my Mac, TeamViewer, or VNC. These work well to allow control and screen viewing between two local or remote computers.

Whickwithy wrote:

 

It seems like Back to my Mac requires a router.  VNC (if it means virtual network connection), I am guessing will require the internet and I have no idea what TeamViewer is but I would guess it would require the internet.

 

The thing under screen sharing that has me wondering is that both computers need to be logged in with Apple under the same id, so that seems to indicate that the connection itself is going over the internet but I can't say that for certain.

Screen sharing does not need Apple.

On a local area network you can specify the IP address of the other system (Screen Sharing is just an Apple modified VNC server/client which never requires an intermediate server).  Also on a local network, you can use the Bonjour name, which is typically your Sharing Computer Name.local (which I tried to scratch out - poorly , no  harm done really - BobBookPro.local is not all that unique in the world, and you already know my name is Bob ).

All that is needed for Screen Sharing is the ability to talk to the other computer, and of course the other computer to have Screen Sharing enabled.

If you have a 2nd Mac to play with you can experiment with all of these things.  If you have a friend with a Mac, you can see about playing with their cooperation, by one of you going to the other's home.

Back-to-My-Mac does require an intermediate server to establish the initial connection.  TeamViewer.com also requires the TeamViewer.com intermediate server to establish the initial connection.  Once the connection is established, the computers just talk between themselves.  Also in both of these situations, all computer to computer communications is encrypted and no one else can decode it.

I just do not understand the strong desire to keep the other Mac off the internet.  Especially if you are going to have your primary Mac on the internet.