Bugbyte's 2001 New Beetle -Mac Mini Install

**Bugbyte** · 11-01-2005, 10:53 PM

Okay, it sounds like you know a little bit about VNC. Here's my issue - I can VNC to the PC from my Mac by running an app called "Chicken of the VNC".

HOWEVER - that's with my desktop Mac using a wireless access point. It works like a charm and is really simple. I HAVEN'T been able to connect to my Car PC because it doesn't have an access point. It just has a wireless card. I've tried putting it in ad-hoc mode and I've used the built in airport on the Mini to set up a network. The PC sees it and even can connect to it, but if I try connecting the Mac to the PC, I get nowhere.

Any ideas?

As for the Griffin, I don't actually know the answer to that. I've got it hooked up to my Mini in the car and the P1900 wakes and sleeps the Mini. I've never actually tried to wake the Mini before starting the car. I'll try it tomorrow morning.

**Cris** · 11-02-2005, 07:40 AM

That powermate looks amazing in that cupholder! Any pic of inside the car?

**Bugbyte** · 11-02-2005, 06:58 PM

Thanks! It looks cool at night when it pulses slowly on and off. Here it is in the car. The wire is showing but I'm running it inside the console so its invisible.

**tj!2k4** · 11-02-2005, 07:17 PM

very slick bugbyte!

nice rsa token, btw .. you need that to fire up the mac?

**Bugbyte** · 11-02-2005, 10:18 PM

Hah! It's for VPN into my company's system. Believe it or not, the Mac will hook right into the Exchange server and pull the mail down via the included Mail app. Just have to launch a VPN app and log in.

The Mac has no user password or antivirus. If it gets hosed, I wipe it and reload the software. But I do have to WEP into the home server from the driveway.

**Fuse314** · 11-06-2005, 03:36 PM

Have you gotten the VNC with your ad-hoc network to run?

If you are using an ad-hoc network connection, you usually have no DHCP-Server (that's the one managing the dynamic IP-Addresses), so you will have to manually set the IP-Addresses in both PC's Network settings:

Try this:
- Set your mac mini's wireless card to ad-hoc network and set an ip-address manually (for Example 192.168.2.5 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, no gateway address is needed in this configuration)
- Set your home PC(or mac ...)'s wireless card to the same SSID name you have set for the ad-hoc network on your mac mini and set the ip-address manually (for Example 192.168.2.6 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, gateway is also not neccessary)

Now you should be able to connect to the running VNC Server on your mac mini by connecting to 192.168.2.5 .

The only drawback of this method is, that you have to change your network configuration every time you want to switch from ad-hoc to your access point and vice-versa :-(

HTH
[==] Fuse

**Bugbyte** · 11-06-2005, 06:47 PM

Thanks very much for the advice. I haven't gotten it to work in ad-hoc. Part of that problem is that I don't know what constutes "ad-hoc" in the Mac world. By that I mean that there isn't a setting to go into ad-hoc. You either connect to a visible network or you don't. You do have the option to create your own network, which I suspect is "infrastructure" mode.

However, I do think I can set up a "location" on the Mini and I do know how to specify the I.P. address. I'll take a shot at it from that angle.

Basically, what I need is to have the car running with both computers booted and a monitor on each with somebody who knows better about networking than I do. I may ask someone at work if they're willing to do it.

**Willy-Mach1** · 11-06-2005, 11:28 PM

Originally Posted by Bugbyte

Thanks very much for the advice. I haven't gotten it to work in ad-hoc. Part of that problem is that I don't know what constutes "ad-hoc" in the Mac world. By that I mean that there isn't a setting to go into ad-hoc. You either connect to a visible network or you don't. You do have the option to create your own network, which I suspect is "infrastructure" mode.

However, I do think I can set up a "location" on the Mini and I do know how to specify the I.P. address. I'll take a shot at it from that angle.

Basically, what I need is to have the car running with both computers booted and a monitor on each with somebody who knows better about networking than I do. I may ask someone at work if they're willing to do it.

Actually I think that the create your own network option is the Mac way of saying ad-hoc. Usually Infrastructure mode is when you are connecting to an access point, thus connecting to some kind of "network infrastructure".

Give it a try with the create your own network and let us know how it goes. I'll try to give it a shot if I have the time, if my girlfriend let's me borrow her Powerbook

And using the "location" options is definately way to go for changing network settings. I wish windows machines had an option like that without aftermarket applications or using scripts.

**Jeep5** · 12-02-2005, 01:15 PM

Very nice setup man, I'm planning to do that with my jeep but I'm still trying to figure out placement for my mini. Are you still using your PC in there or did you just go all out with the mac?? And if you are, are you using some sort of KVM to switch between them?

**Bugbyte** · 12-02-2005, 03:09 PM

Both computers are still in the car. I'm too cheap to pay $70 for a KVM, so I thought of using VNC to access the PC in the back. This works fine.....at home on my wireless access point. In the car, no luck so far. To be fair, I've been working on a couple of other items at the moment but I need to get back around to fixing this.