Two Macs sharing same Internet connection

[Germaris]

Hello!

I have a specific problem about two Macs sharing the same internet connection.

When my Mac was the sole machine I used, I had no problems.

I have a Static IP provided by my ISP because one the Macs hosts four websites and I wanted to eliminate any problem for customers to find my sites.
My router set as Bridge and my connection to the ISP set up in Network Preferences.
Till now everything was running fine.


Now I have a second Mac, more powerful which I use as a "workhorse" for heavy graphics tasks but for which I also require an Internet connection.

Problem is : My customers can't visit my sites as their requests aren't directed to the right Mac.

How can I solve this problem?

Many thanks in advance for your valuable advices and tips!



Gerard



PS: I have an Airport Extreme which you can include in your proposed solution if necessary.


Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iPhone

 

[Raptor]

Hello!

I have a specific problem about two Macs sharing the same internet connection.

When my Mac was the sole machine I used, I had no problems.

I have a Static IP provided by my ISP because one the Macs hosts four websites and I wanted to eliminate any problem for customers to find my sites.
My router set as Bridge and my connection to the ISP set up in Network Preferences.
Till now everything was running fine.


Now I have a second Mac, more powerful which I use as a "workhorse" for heavy graphics tasks but for which I also require an Internet connection.

Problem is : My customers can't visit my sites as their requests aren't directed to the right Mac.

How can I solve this problem?

Many thanks in advance for your valuable advices and tips!



Gerard



PS: I have an Airport Extreme which you can include in your proposed solution if necessary.


Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iPhone

I assume, without knowing, that the same IP address is used by both computers. If so, I suggest leaving the hosting computer on the static address, and reconfigure the new computer with the ISP using DHCP, which will change its “address.”

 

[Germaris]

Thanks for replying so soon!
You perfectly understand the problem and I think your solution will work.
Alas, my new computer is out for upgrade and won't be back home before Feb. 25.
As soon I'll get it, I'll give your solution a try and keep you informed of the results.
Again, thank you!
Best regards.

 

[Hermes-II-SysOp]

Germaris, were you able to work out your problems regarding the two computers?

Alternatively, you can manually assign an internal IP address -- that is, a LAN IP address which utilizes NAT -- to both machines. You would do this in your Network preferences pane on each machine.

The reason why I am suggesting this route, is because I have seen where if you have multiple machines running on a LAN using a DHCP server, sometimes the internal IP addresses get switched around on the machines without you realizing it. This might possibly happen if you turn on one machine before another. Thus, by manually assigning internal IP address to each machine, they will never change, because you won't be using the DHCP server.

Now, here is the rest of the story regarding the Internet traffic that you spoke about . . .

If you want specific services/requests to go to a specific machine, then you need to log into your Airport Extreme using the Airport Utility.

Once you provide your base station password, click on the edit button, and then go to the Network tab.

On the Network tab near the middle, you will see a section called Port Settings. This is where you can forward specific requests from the Internet to specific machines on your LAN.

You can click on the + button to add new services. For example, let's say you want personal web sharing to go to machine A. In such a case, you would enter port 80, and then in the Private IP Address field, you would type the internal LAN IP address of machine A; that is, whatever IP address on your LAN that you manually assigned to machine A in its Network prefs pane.

I hope that some of these ideas help you.

 

[Germaris]

Germaris, were you able to work out your problems regarding the two computers?

Alternatively, you can manually assign an internal IP address -- that is, a LAN IP address which utilizes NAT -- to both machines. You would do this in your Network preferences pane on each machine.

The reason why I am suggesting this route, is because I have seen where if you have multiple machines running on a LAN using a DHCP server, sometimes the internal IP addresses get switched around on the machines without you realizing it. This might possibly happen if you turn on one machine before another. Thus, by manually assigning internal IP address to each machine, they will never change, because you won't be using the DHCP server.

Now, here is the rest of the story regarding the Internet traffic that you spoke about . . .

If you want specific services/requests to go to a specific machine, then you need to log into your Airport Extreme using the Airport Utility.

Once you provide your base station password, click on the edit button, and then go to the Network tab.

On the Network tab near the middle, you will see a section called Port Settings. This is where you can forward specific requests from the Internet to specific machines on your LAN.

You can click on the + button to add new services. For example, let's say you want personal web sharing to go to machine A. In such a case, you would enter port 80, and then in the Private IP Address field, you would type the internal LAN IP address of machine A; that is, whatever IP address on your LAN that you manually assigned to machine A in its Network prefs pane.

I hope that some of these ideas help you.

Thank you very much for dedicating a part of your time to solve my problem.

Your solution, which I understood well, is logical and very simple. It should work.
I’ll give it a try and keep you informed !

Best regards.

 

[Hermes-II-SysOp]

Thank you very much for dedicating a part of your time to solve my problem.

Your solution, which I understood well, is logical and very simple. It should work.
I’ll give it a try and keep you informed !

Best regards.

Excellent! I hope to hear soon that you have succeeded!