Connect two computers to share files?

Yup

That's what i would like to do. Im using xp on my pc and xp on my laptop. Would it be best to have them connect through the internet using my pc and then upload download the files from one computer to the laptop. I had look at some of the available tutorials on the internet but i cant get it to work. Do you need a special cable for it? I tried the sharing option in xp but when i look on my laptop i don't see the other computer? PLease anyone Is there a step by step guide for compu noobs like me

 

You just a standard ethernet crossover cable. Plug it into both and XP should recognize it on both ends. If not go in and set your IP manually.

 

And if you want the computers connected to the internet at the same time, just buy a cheap router/hub and connect both computers to the router with regular CAT5 cables (not crossover) and connect your cable box/DSL line to the WAN port on the router.

XP is configured to use DHCP, which automatically assigns IP addresses to the computers. If you want, to start with connect the 2 computers with a crossover CAT5 cable and see if you can ping one computer from the other (start-> run->cmd->ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xx) where xxx.xxx.xx.xx is the IP of the other computer. If you want to manually set the IP of the computer, go to My Network Places and go to the properties of your LAN connection, click on TCP/IP in the list of protocols and click the configure button. There you can change the IP.

After you have a LAN connection between the 2 computers, to be able to use windows file sharing, you need to make sure both are on the same workgroup. Go to the properties of MyComputer and you can change it there under the Name tab. Then create a shared folder and you're ready to go.

After you do all that you can start having lots of fun like experimenting with your own HTTP and FTP servers on your LAN.

Hope you can understand some of what I said.

 

Thanks I realized I had a vigor2000 router still laying around so I tried to install it. Or my internet just died on me the last hour or i didn't configure it properly. I got so far that i was able to match the IP of the router and the computer. I even entered the web configurator. But in the end as always no luck. I'm trying it right now again.

 

The crossover cable plus XP's Network Wizard are the simplest options.

 

Ok I got a certified patch cable, a blue one. CAT5 csa cmg. I plugged them in on both computers and it can't seem to connect with one other. Im using a fast ethenet card on my laptop would that make any difference? I have set manually a IP and a submask. When I try to ping my laptop from my main computer i get the message "host can not be found/reached" Somehow Im making a mistake I just don't know where and how.

 

Have you stoped your firewalls

 

Yeah I did How do you know? It's getting late so I might have not switched them off. I will give it another go tomorrow. Been starring to long at that large white screen.

 

A patch cable in not a crossover cable

 

funny i tried exactly the same thing once, with a proper crossover cable...

and no joy either...

so i just purchased an external 120gig hard drive, and use that for swapping info instead