Internet Sharing via USB Wifi Dongle?

Question

Internet Sharing via USB Wifi Dongle?

I just acquired a first gen Mini (1.25Ghz, 1GB RAM) with no Airport built in. I was able to add wireless to it via a Ralink 802.11n USB dongle. Here's my question:

Can I connect the Mini to the internet via ethernet and then use the USB dongle to share the connection with other Macs in my house?

I currently have an old PowerMac G4 acting as a server/wireless router. (Ethernet in to give it a real IP address for easy access from anywhere. Airport out to give internet access to my MacBook Pro.) It's a great setup, and serves me well (no pun intended), but if I could get the Mini to take its place, it would save me room.

Anyone know how to get one of these USB Wifi dongles to share out internets?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
SJ (no, not that SJ)

Mac Mini / 1.25Ghz / 1GB / 40GB + externals, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 28, 2008 8:27 PM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,884 points

Nov 30, 2008 8:46 PM in response to Steven Johannssen

Can I connect the Mini to the internet via ethernet and then use the USB dongle to share the connection with other Macs in my house?

I don't have a USB wireless adapter, but I believe in order for this to work, you would have to be able to select it when attempting to configure Internet Sharing.

Does this USB adapter show up in the list of network devices under the Network panel in System Preferences? If it does, go to the Sharing panel. From this panel, select Internet Sharing; choose the USB adapter for the "Share your connection from" list, and then, choose "To computers using" = "Ethernet."

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Answer 2

Dec 1, 2008 6:06 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for the reply.

This is partly what's frustrating -- yes, it does show up in the Network Prefs, and yes, it's an available choice in the Sharing panel. It's there as "From Ethernet" -- "Via USB Ethernet (en2)". But no new wireless networks show up for my MBP. Since it's not an "Airport" wireless card, the usual Airport options ("Create New Network", etc.) are not available.

What else can I look at or try? Thanks again!

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

157,884 points

Dec 1, 2008 8:04 AM in response to Steven Johannssen

The only other options, that I'm aware of, would replace your dongle with an internal card for your Mac Mini. But this solution would potentially cost more that just getting an AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) which would solve your problem of supporting both wired and wireless clients.

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