IP over FireWire tutorial

I set this up two weeks ago and I'm not to happy with it. There's a lot of CPU usage on my PB if I transfer files via smb to the PC, and if I want to mount one of my shares on the PC the finder locks up. But perhaps that has to do with my OSX-installation, it has some issues.

I agree with Brian. I've used IP over FW and it's nice for quick and dirty transfers when in need. But it also has a lot of issues, such as never knowing on which machine your iPod will mount ;o). Not to mention, has he said earlier, cable cost and possible length. Did I mention *nix compatibility? Also, it'd be a pain to DIY your own FW cable, which saves a lot of clutter on, or under, your desk when you can make just the right length of Cat5e for Ethernet. Anyhow, I still like the solution for fast transfers from times to times, but imho Target Mode is much better suited for this.

I put something similar up on my blog a while ago. Saves having to mess around with the whole WinSCP bit too.

Start by rebooting your PC so you've got a clean slate to work with. If your PC is anything like mine, it can get a tad, ahem, cranky, after a while. No need to reboot your Mac, but this whole exercise with run a lot more smoothly if you have no programs open on either machine.

1. On your PC, open up My Computer and navigate to the level that contains the folder or drive you want to share with your Mac.
2. Right-click on its icon and select Sharing and Security.
3. On the Sharing tab of the dialog box that appears, check the box next to 'Share this folder on the network'. Give it a nice short and simple name!
If you want to be able to delete or edit files which are on your PC's HD from your Mac, check 'Allow users to change my files', otherwise just click on OK to save your changes.
4. At this point I should note that if your PC is on a network already, at this point your files will be accessible to other network users. If you don't want this to be the case then as soon as you have finished transferring files to and from your PC, go back and disable sharing on the folder or drive in question. Is it highly unadvisable to check 'Allow users to change my files' if you are on a public network!
5. Connect your PC to your Mac using a firewire cable.
6. On your PC, open up a command window (Start > Run > 'cmd').
7. Type 'ipconfig' and hit Enter. A list of your network connections and details about them will be displayed.
8. Look for the connection with '1394' in its name. This is your Firewire connection. Note down the IP address (which is 12 digits long and in the format 123.456.789.123).
9. On your Mac, open up a Finder window and click on Go > Connect to Server (or hit Command-K).
10. In Server Address field, enter 'smb://' followed by the IP address you wrote down in step 8, followed by the share name of the folder you want to access, for example 'smb://123.456.789.123/sharedfiles'. Hit Enter.
11. Your Mac will connect to your PC, and a Finder window will appear on your Mac screen showing the files and folders on your PC. Now it's simply a matter of dragging and dropping files from one window to the other then disconnecting your firewire cable.
12. Simple really!

I did some testing when IPoFW for Macs was new. (Somewhere around OS X 10.2.) I connected two Graphite G4s over a regular 10/100 network, with a crossover cable (direct 10/100 connection), with a straight cable (gigabit) and FireWire 400.

Transferring a largeish single file (~600 MB disk image, IIRC) took about 30 seconds via gigabit and about 90 seconds with each of the other three methods. FireWire was within a couple seconds of regular 10/100. I haven't tested since then, nor have I tested with FW800, but don't put your gigabit gear away just yet.

IPoFW has some uses (like if you bring your laptop to work and only have one network jack in your cube, you can turn on Internet sharing on your desktop and connect the laptop to the desktop and get online, or if you just so happen to have a PC with FW, like the author) but it's not a drop-in replacement for ethernet. Cable length and cost are just two of the main reasons to stay with ethernet. And honestly, if you just want to do a little sharing with two Macs over firewire, target disk mode is much easier.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

I've used IP over Firewire anytime I've had more than one machine on my desk. It is lightning fast for large file transfers, and still pretty nippy with many small files as well.