Making a macbook a router?

Is there anyway to make a Macbook a router?

 

Be more specific. Make it a router and continue using it as a Macbook as well? Making it purely a router?
What model of Macbook?

 

I doubt it would work. The only motor in a MacBook is for the CD drive or the hard drives themselves. Both spin pretty fast, but add the weight of a bit and they just won't be able to do even simple roundovers.

A DeWalt is cheaper and will cut wood better than a Mac.

 

I agree 100%, DeWalt is the way to go here. Macbooks are just too smooth to have much of an effect on wood.

 

I assume the two above posts are jokes.

 

OK...I just got this mental picture of a Macbook with a bit sticking out of the bottom when I saw the title...couldn't help myself. But I do own that DeWalt (and I can't get it connected to the internet...)

 

I love the comment KimoT, as my wife is a cabinet maker and disagrees, she says that dewalt is bad for burning out motors when doing 5 piece doors, she prefers the 2.5hp Ryobi or a 3 hp Porter Cable. for SERIOUS work a 30HP spindle in a CNC ..... and yes Hep they were GOOD jokes as I keep getting told that my sissy Cisco untits would make crappy routers

Thanks for the laugh guys

 

If you were in windows, you could plug your macbook into the router/modem/what-have-you and the enable the laptop to share internet through it's wireless card.. Not sure how it's done in mac land.

 

On a more serious note, there are a few Linux distros that are designed to run as firewalls/routers. One of these might do what you are looking for.

 

I've personally used Freesco, Coyote, and currently am using IPCop. Tried monowall without luck (one of my cards isn't supported).
I was waiting to see what the OP wants to do exactly though.

 

Either way - using it purely as a router or using it as a computer that acts as a router as well. And the Macbook is the second to latest generation (latest being the aluminum case redesigns)

 

Just for my own curiosity, why would you use something so valuable as only a router? My router might as well be a cisco with the quality and features it has, and it's a P3 500MHz compaq armada.

Either way it's an intel mac so any of the distros I mentioned earlier should work - I'd suggest IP cop since the other two are floppy based. You'll probably need a USB NIC though.

 

Here's the reason: I currently attend college, and in the college apartments, each of which consists of 4 residents, only allow 4 different IP addresses to be registered to the apartment. Any computer with an IP address different from those registered on the first few days of school will not have internet access. Therefore, XBox 360's, PS3's, and anything that can go online, aside from the computer I registered, have no internet access. Trouble comes when I want to play PS3 online, I cannot just plug the cable into the PS3 because it will not receive internet due to the fact that, well, it's not my computer and thus does not have my computer' IP address.Therefore, the online reason for me to play PS3 online is if I can use my computer as a router, or if I buy a router (which I cannot afford at the moment).

 

Okay, you can use the linux distros IF you use USB NIC's as linux isnt too fond of the onboard, your best bet is actually a sub $40 router, and ANY cheapo D-link, Linksys, Asus, SMC, will do nicely and have the college change your assigned MAC to the router or have the router use your computers MAC address ( MAC Cloning )

using OSX as a router for internet sharing .... NOT so good. But can be done easily enough in XP or higher if you run it through paralels and enable ICS

 

I'd suggest throwing an extra NIC into an XP machine, doing internet connection sharing on it, and just putting a switch on the other end.

 

I have no idea what any of these things mean, so I guess it's the easiest to just get a router after I save up enough money... But thanks for your help though!

 

Tell ya what, I got a pile of extra routers around this joint? want one send me a PM .. no charge or shipping