networking a Mac and a pc to share internet.

I would put "tight VNC" on the PC, then go into my sharing on the mac, enable remote desktop, then, in options, enable "vnc users may control the screen..." etc and put a password on it.

fire up VNC on the PC, input the IP of the Mac and the password. The desktop of the mac should show up on your PC desktop, and you should be able to run the mac from your pc.

BR

When you say you "have them connected", how do you mean? Wirelessly? I may not be understanding you correctly but it sounds like you need to go to Sys Preferences, Sharing, Internet Sharing and tell the Mac to share your internet connection to the PC.

I have never done the reverse (PC access to Mac) so I do not know for certain if you need VNC or not for this though I doubt it. I believe in XP (is that what you're using?) there is network setup wizard which within has an option to share your connection with another computer. I believe it is Control Panel. I would go through the wizard and follow those steps and see what happens. Let me know if that works...

Some posters have recommended VNC. VNC is a good option if you want to control one machine from another. From reading your post, I think you are describing the need for sharing....

I do this quite a bit, and it is easy. In OS X and Windows, there is the ability to "share" an internet connection. All you need is an ethernet cable. In OS X, there is an option in the Sharing preference for "Internet Sharing". Basically, the computer creates an internal network on the shared interface. If the computer with the internet connection has a wireless connection, you will need to enable sharing on the ethernet interface and then connect the 2nd computer with an ethernet cable. Vice versa also works. The Mac (or PC) will create a private internal network on the shared interface, and act as a DHCP server. I have not done this in Windows in quite some time, but I remember that it is not difficult, and the options can be found in the network settings. You just need to remember that you can't share the connection out the same way that it comes in. Wireless can share to ethernet, and ethernet can share to wireless. They can not share to the same type of connection.


My father has an iMac G5 hooked to a cable modem. When I visit, I set his iMac to share the connection through the wireless card. The Mac then acts as a DHCP server and router. The only hassle to this setup is the OS X firewall. I had to open ports for the internal network before everything worked flawlessly. At home, I set OS X up to share its wireless connection through ethernet. This allows me to hook up computers with no wireless cards to the network through the Mac.

Good luck!

Steve

Few questions Tell us about your wireless connection from your pc, does it come from an access point? What model of Access point.
What kind of mac are we talking about
If you want to share you internet connection from the pc goto-->Control panel-->Network Setup wizard choose the appropriate connection for your application, probably the first one "This computer connects directly to the internet other computers on my network connect to the internet through this computer" Then choose your wireless connection and then the next screen make sure your lan connection is checked. (you could probably share the wireless connection here as well)
The reason I ask about your access point, and mac, it may be better instead of sharing the connection from your pc to just connect directly to the wireless from the mac

Have you looked in to getting a USB wireless adaptor for the Mac? I bought one for the COO of my company so he could use his old iMac G3 as streaming music server and it works great. I believe it was an Asus/Addlogix and it is specifically for the Mac. We use Belkin hardware here at work and there were no issues connecting. I doubt you'd have any compatibility issues with Linksys. If you do it this way instead of the other way around it will be much easier. You can also eliminate the router.

I would like to help you, but you need to give us the information that I asked you for so I can get an idea of your setup. I need the manufacturer and model of your router, and tell me what your pc is connecting to wirelessly (is it the same router?) and what model of mac you have. With that information, I can sort you out in a few minutes.
I don't know where you got the one cable idea, but if you are hooking a computer directly to another computer without a switch or router it needs to be a crossover cable (cat5 A to cat5B) Some modems also require a crossover cable.