Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Roaming Mac Network

I've struggled with setting up my home network for months. Instead of trouble-shooting a continuous loop of issues, I think maybe the better approach by now is just to ask you guys how you would set up a network in my position and start again from scratch. Here goes:

I'm an attorney by training, but at the moment I'm on a sabbatical of sorts, traveling around the US and Canada in an RV. I still do "freelance" work for various clients, so I need a network that is fairly reliable in a number of circumstances.

Generally, I get my internet connection either through (1) public wi-fi available in various RV parks (which is frequently a terrible, terrible connection) or (2) through a Verizon JetPack wi-fi hotspot tied to a high volume (but still limited) data plan.

Inside the RV I need a network that will connect the following devices: MacBook Pro laptop, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV/Roku stick (not at the same time), and a printer with a 2.4GHz wireless antenna (though the printer's wireless connectivity is trivial compared to the rest).

I brought with me the following wireless gizmos from my house: 1 AirPort Time Capsule 2TB (circa late 2013), 2 AirPort Express units (more recent than the "bad batch" of models from 2012 or so, but older than the newly upgraded units), an Apple TV unit and an old D-Link router that may be totally useless.

My goal is to create a home network unit that will work smoothly regardless of whether the internet connection comes from my JetPack or from public wi-fi at places where its good enough to use it. Because the JetPack only has connection for a USB dongle, my initial idea was to utilize one of the AirPort Express units to catch the wireless signal, and connect it via ethernet cable to the Time Capsule, and then have the Time Capsule create the network to which all the wireless devices connect. The idea was that I'd set the AE to "Join a Wireless Network" and all I would have to do in various settings was change the designated network without otherwise messing with the network.

I've tried this in various forms and with various settings for months, but nothing has consistently and reliably worked. I've tried at various times setting both or either of the Time Capsule and AE to bridge mode, automatic DHCP and static DHCP. I've also played around with trying to physically connect my laptop to the Time Capsule. Invariably, even when some new solution works for some time, it ultimately craters. The most confusing/frequent occurrence is that I will have the setup described above running with the TC and AE in bridge mode, and my devices on the home network running great (with the Airport Utility reflecting everything in great shape), but it never works for more than an hour without ultimately losing the internet connection, and then I have to reboot everything and start again. My fallback has always been to just connect everything directly to the network produced by the JetPack, but that means a slow connection speed inside the RV, and that data is limited.

I admit that before I started all this I knew absolutely nothing about networking, and what I know now is a messed up jumble of information I've compiled from various internet sites. Like I first mentioned, I've constantly been in this mode of tinkering with various settings and then just testing and retesting the network, but I think it's time to stop chasing down individual issues and take a new look at the whole situation.

So, given all that, how should I set up this network? I'm not opposed to buying new equipment but obviously going with what I have would be preferred. I should also mention that my impetus to re-work all of this is that I'll be in Canada for the next six or seven weeks, and up here I can't use the JetPack, so I'm entirely reliant on wi-fi hotspots.

Any and all thoughts will be GREATLY appreciated. After scouring the Apple forums and sites like Stack Exchange, Quora, Reddit, etc. for months, I only recently found this site. I have to say that from what I've seen, the responses from you guys are the most thorough, knowledgeable and sensible ones I've found. I look forward to hearing from you!

PS, I also meant to mention that I would like to be able to utilize the home network even when I don't have an internet connection, for example, to stream movies from my laptop to the Apple TV. That's way down the priority list, but would be great to have. Thanks!

You are dead on about the quality of RV Park WiFi networks, they are generally bad — and those are the good ones. In fact I am seeing more and more RVers using satellite internet through portable dish antennas for that very reason. As for your network problems - you are overcomplicating things. All you need are your laptop, iPhone, iPad, and printer. The Time Capsule and Airport Express are total overkill.

• If the RV park has decent WiFi then your Mac and iOS devices can all connect directly to that. That will not enable data sharing, but that can be done through iCloud if you have a good internet connection.
• If the RV Park does not have a good WiFi connection there is nothing you can do and no equipment you can buy that will make it any better. Try the Starbucks in town when you need internet.
• I assume you can connect your laptop to the internet by Jetpack® so do so then since your laptop is capable of creating its own WiFi network…
  • Click on the WiFi icon on the menu bar
  • Select Create Network…
  • Choose a network name and channel
  • Click on Create and it is done
  • In System Preferences > Sharing check Internet Sharing and Printer Sharing
  • You can now share your laptop's Jetpack® internet connection with your other devices
  • Connect your printer to your laptop with a USB cable and it can then be shared with all your devices.
• Streaming internet video content is going to be an expensive and iffy situation. Most RV parks do not have enough speed or bandwidth on their WiFi to support that (I have encountered RV Parks that ask campers to limit their connect time to 15 minutes so everyone has an opportunity to get on the internet at least for a short while) but they generally offer at least some cable connections that will work with the TV in your RV.
• If you are playing content that has already been downloaded to your laptop an HDMI adaptor cable beats going through the Apple TV hands down.
• If you want to use the Time Capsule to backup your laptop an Ethernet cable is cheap, easy and a LOT faster than WiFi.

If I were going to be living in my RV for any extended length of time I would subscribe to a Satellite Internet service and get a tripod mounted dish with at least a 30 to 50 foot coax so I could position the dish for a clear line of site to the satellite. (Often that is not too easy especially in wilderness or mountainous regions. If you are interested in going with Satellite Internet (and television??) I found this site that might help you choose. It even considers mobile installations in the selection criteria.

Full Disclosure I have no fiduciary relationship with any satellite internet provider. I am not even a customer of one of these services. But as an RVer this topic got me to thinking so I did some research. It is definitely worth considering.

And to round out joemike's excellent post, hi, and welcome to FineTunedMac.

Thanks for the detailed response! And great idea about just sharing my connection through the MacBook. One question though: why can I not share the wi-fi connection via wi-fi? I did try this previously, but when I select which internet connection to share, if I select wi-fi then I do not have the option to share the connection via wi-fi. If it was connected via ethernet I can, but the problem again is that I can't connect the JetPack to my ethernet port. Is there a work around or some other way to allow the computer to both utilize and share it's wi-fi connection?

Hi Nomad, welcome to the Fine Tuned Mac community. You've asked a lot of very reasonable questions and hopefully we can lead you to equally reasonably solutions.

Your last query concerning internet sharing is an easy one....think of your data stream as passing through a "Y" valve, where it comes in one way and goes out another. You can't have the data come in the same way it goes out, so to connect to the internet via WiFI means that you would have to share that internet connection via some other path.

Hope that helps clarify the issue for you.

Please excuse my oversight in not welcoming you to FineTunedMac, fortunately Artie505 and MacManiac have better social skills than I do .

MacManiac already gave you the reason that will not work, but my question is. "why would you want to do that?" If you have a good WiFi connection to your laptop why not simply log your iPhone, and iPad onto the same WiFi network. Adding an intermediate device can only slow the entire system down. If your intent is data sharing iCloud is a better way to do that and in addition provides backup and data storage without taking up storage space on your laptop, or iOS devices. In networking as in most things you should always follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) rule of thumb. Things almost invariably work better and take less maintenance that way.

AND here's where my ignorance starts to show: if I'm using the JetPack or public hot spot directly for all my wi-fi items, relying on DHCP coming from it and not from anything in my personal network, do those packets go anywhere other than directly between items in my network (i.e. all kept INTRAnet) or do they go back to some third party system and return?

This comes into play less with work files and more with my media. I do stream video files saved from my Mac to the TV, and occasionally I cast "live" streaming from the web as well. I also use the second AE connected to the RV sound system to stream music. When I connect directly to the JetPack or a public wi-fi hotspot both of those are so choppy as to be unusable, but when the internal network is humming they stream just fine. Is that my imagination? The enhanced media streaming is the main reason why I am hoping for a better solution than just connecting everything through external devices.

In the network configuration I suggested your laptop would serve as a router on a LAN (local Area Network) and traffic between say your iPhone and printer would remain within the LAN. However, If your iPhone wanted to communicate with the internet using the network created by your laptop those packets would of necessity go to the telco switch, and through that to a host of servers and other network devices potentially located almost anywhere in the known universe or at least on the planet earth. I don't know about you, but I have almost no traffic between my desktop computer and my iOS devices except through the intermediary of iCloud and since iCloud is not on my LAN all of that goes through the internet network.

If you are super concerned about privacy you might want to look into setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and although that would require everything to go through the internet it would all be encrypted and the third party VPN server would hide your actual IP address and physical location. But if anything that would slow your internet connection even more.

Thanks again for your detailed input. Privacy is not my concern so much as (a) burning through Verizon data with traffic that should/could be kept within the LAN, and (b) speed/quality of streaming content (which frequently is streaming from my laptop, phone or tablet to either the AppleTV or the AE tied to the sound system). So long as using the shared internet connection through the MacBook-based LAN keeps all media streaming packets within a closed loop of my RV, the quality should be fine and I won't burn data, correct?

Previously if I tied everything directly and individually to the JetPack or the Wi-fi hotspot I had serious issues with streaming quality, even for content saved on my laptop, so I wondered if that data was going some ridiculously circuitous route to get from my sofa to my TV. I've also never gotten a definitive answer - or one that I trusted anyway - on the question of whether connecting all my devices to the JetPack directly leads to data leakage for what should really be internal traffic, and if that leakage burns against my precious monthly stockpile of data. If I knew that definitively, and if I could stream clearly through direct connections, that would solve it. To date though, I've not been able to do either.

I swear I'm not trying to drag this out! It's just more complicated in execution than it seems like it should be. Assuming the answer to one of those questions above is unsatisfactory, what would be your #2 suggestion? Would it work to use my laptop to catch the wi-fi signal, and then share my internet connection via ethernet (wi-fi in, ethernet out) and just run a cord to the time capsule or the AE to create a network? That is one configuration I have not tried because I was confused about the y-valve scenario that MacManiac deftly cleared up for me earlier (thank you!). It also seems like I'd have a lot more control that way, or at least that as a router the laptop may be more configurable?

EDIT: to clarify my very first statement up there, I am VERY concerned about privacy and I do utilize a VPN religiously when working with client documents or my own online banking, bill pay, log-ins, etc. I do NOT worry about privacy when I'm streaming an old episode of South Park from my laptop to the TV. I just wanted to clarify that in case any IT neck hairs went up when reading that first sentence. Ha.

As long as you only want to stream audio/video content from your Mac to an Apple TV you do not need to turn the Jetpack or Internet sharing on. Your laptop can still create a network and the Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad can connect to that network. They do not need DNS or router services as they all can connect using Bonjour.

I would still recommend an HDMI connection from the laptop to the TV in your RV fro playing movies as simpler and faster. No Apple TV would be needed, therefore one less device to keep track of and configure. KISS The TV in my Airstream Interstate has a USB port as well as an HDMI and either would work.

Regarding your jetpack. It just occurred to me the metal body of my Airstream Interstate, even with all of the windows penetrating the skin, is at least a partial Faraday cage for absorbing WiFi, and Cell signals. The iPhone and iPad work best in the front seat area where they are surrounded by glass on three sides. The signal is even better outside of the RV. So where you place the Jetpack can make a significant difference in signal strength and data speed. Something for you to experiment with.

Well, over the last week I tried again to clear out old settings and just connect all widgets directly to the internet via the JetPack or wifi hotspot, and they continue to perform poorly, so I don't think that's a good option long term.

I've also tried using the MacBook as the router, with it catching the wifi signal and then sharing the captured wifi signal via ethernet cable to my Airport base station, which is set to create a wireless network, but also set in bridge mode. I have NO idea why that works, but it's been way more stable vis-a-vis my internal network than anything else I've tried. No crashes and all wifi widgets have stayed connected consistently with great streaming. No other setup has worked as well for the gadgets.

It's causing weird issues with my MacBook, however. Certain applications run very slowly, and sharing processes, like uploading photos from my camera or iPhone to the Photos app or syncing iOS devices, take a remarkably long time.

Just for kicks I've been watching the console, and I get this message about every other line for the entire time I'm sharing the network signal:

configd[49]: DHCP en0: INIT transmit failed

Any ideas? Also, is there a really good primer to help me understand IP addresses, DHCP, NAT, etc., and how they all interact? I've sensed all along that's where my problems have always been, but I just can't get my head around it all. I'm feeling even more confused now than when I posted the question initially.

The problem with either the JetPack or a WiFi hotspot is limited bandwidth. The internet connection has a limited bandwidth and when you split that among multiple devices each of the connected devices only gets a portion of the total so performance is poor. The limited bandwidth is a function of the design of the 4G/LTE technology and there is nothing you can do to improve it. It is like trying to fill several olympic size swimming pools simultaneously using a ⅜ inch garden hose. You can eventually fill all of them but you can only force so much water through a ⅜ hose so it is going to take a LONG time.


I am only half joking when I say look for a 3 semester hour course at your local community college or university. Networking covers a lot of different technologies and each gets used. The terms you listed, are internet specific but non-internet technologies and protocols may get involved.

I just went looking for a good networking primer and there are several books in the …For Dummies series and although I have not actually read any of them they seem to be focused toward Network Administrators or would be Network Administrators but you can take a look and make up your own mind as to their value. My favorite technical publisher O'Reilly Press offers a number of books on networking from highly technical to several specifically targeting home networking. I have not read it but David Pogues Missing Manual series has long been a Mac use favorite and I would certainly give Home Networking: The Missing Manual a good look.

I did not find any concise online overview that appeared adequate. But Webopedia does provide simple but accurate descriptions of networking technology. If I may suggest a curriculum…

• Start with the 7 Layer OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Model which describes the hierarchy of actions that must take place to assure reliable network communications.
• From there I would go to the fundamental protocols of the internet TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) which are built into Unix including the Unix kernel that undergirds OS X.
• You specifically asked about DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and NAT (Network Address Translation)
• You should also look at DNS (Dynamic Naming Services) Servers and Router
• There are links from each of those references to a variety of other important topics such as MAC (not Mac) Addresses, Ethernet, etc.

Putting all of this together into an integrated whole is no small task — which is why not many people bother to do it. The list I provided are at best signposts along the way.