Mac OS X to the Max: Using AirPort to Share an Internet Connection with a Wired Network

AirPort enables you to easily share an Internet connection among AirPort-equipped machines. However, you can also use an AirPort Base Station to share an Internet account among machines that are connected to it via a wired network, such as an Ethernet network. You can do this because the Base Station is actually a DHCP server.

To learn more about DHCP servers, see Chapter 26, "Sharing an Internet Connection," p. 755.

To configure an AirPort Hardware Access Point as a DHCP server, use steps similar to those you used to configure the AirPort Hardware Access Point manually earlier in this chapter. On the Network tab, check the following check boxes: "Ethernet client computers also share a single IP address (using NAT)" and then "Enable DHCP server on Ethernet." Update the Base Station settings by clicking the Update button. Any machines set to use a DHCP server will be able to access the Internet through the AirPort Hardware Access Point whether they connect to it via AirPort or Ethernet.

To configure an AirPort Hardware Access Point, see "Configuring the Base Station Manually," p. 272.

If you want AirPort-connected machines to be able to access devices on an Ethernet network, such as printers, check the "Enable AirPort to Ethernet Bridging" check box.