Networking old Macs

[Spirit-of-mac]

Hi I have the following Mac's that I wish to network at home any ideas or articles to put me on the right path:-
G4 2001, Mac pro 2006, 2xiMac2011, macbook pro 2010, mac mini 2014 and a iPad 2020.
Thanks in advance

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-What versions of OS X/macOS/iOS?
-What kind of network connection - Ethernet, Wi-Fi?
-If Wi-Fi, what brand/model is the router and what type of Wi-Fi security - WEP, WPA, WPA 2, etc.?
-What kind of networking are you looking to do - file sharing, screen sharing, etc.?

C

 

[Agret]

On your Mac Mini (I assume this will be the 24/7 "server" as the rest of the devices are portable) create a network shared folder and configure a username/password for it (or setup as guest / everyone access)

On the otherdevices you can use Finder to go to network and type in:

smb://macmini/sharename

Replace "macmini" with the sharing name that shows up in System Preferences / Sharing and replace sharename with the name of the share you made for that folder.

Then press the + to add it to the favorites list, next time you want to connect you can just double click that old link.

When connecting for the first time there is a tick box to save the password.

For the iPad your only real option is to use iCloud Drive between it and the Mac Mini, will have to copy/paste things manually between the share with all the other devices. You can use some file browser apps to access windows networks but they are hit or miss and I never found one that supported as many apps as iCloud Drive does on the iPad.