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Setting up an Ad Hoc Wireless network with Internet Sharing in OSX 10.5

There are numerous benefits of setting up a wireless network with internet sharing. I set one up today, because I wanted to sync various iPhone applications with the Computer. Many applications on the iPhone sync when they are run while their desktop client software is running in the computer, and the iphone is connected via USB. One of such applications is Things. However some other applications like 1Password sync only via a wireless LAN. At my office, I have a wired ethernet connection, so I setup a wireless ad hoc network and all my iphone application sync'ed smoothly. Some other colleagues connected to my wireless aswell and enjoyed a performance of 4Mbps. On the iphone I got over 3Mbps speed, a lot faster than 3G.

Setting up a wireless connection on the mac is easy, and only two steps are requires:

1, Enable Internet Sharing

Go to System Preferences > Sharing.

Enable Internet Sharing and select the interface from which you want to share connection (In my case it was ethernet), and then select the interface through which it will be shared (In my case its the Airport, which is the default for wireless ad hoc networks). A screenshot is shown in the following picture.

2. Setup a wireless adhoc network

Go to the Airport Icon in the Desktop and select
"Create Network". Define a name, and specify a password (if you want one). The built in airport can only create WEP ad hoc networks.