connecting two machines together

[tony draper]

How does one go about this,? my only experience was with two Amigas connected together with a null modem cable.
Not for any serious purpose, just to kick my nephews arse at Wolfenstein.
I think I have a ethernet card in me junk box,other prob might be me nephew is on a cable modem and I just have dial up.
Any idea if this is possible , a direct connection rather than thru the internet??.

[Hamrah]

So many variables Tony. Are the computers running the same operating system? Do you want them to share a single internet connection? How far apart are they? Do you want them to share files and printers.

The cheapest way would be a couple of Network cards and a cable. That would enable both computers to share the same Internet connection.

A better plan involves a Router, which enables the computers to access the Internet independently.

[tony draper]

No Hamrah, was thinking in terms of connecting the two machines up directly without the internet.
You could do that with the Amiga in the pre internet days.
Sounds like its not a good idea,he is runnig xp and I am running win98.
Just a daft idea, dont suppose Wolfenstein supports it anyway, when I think about it.
Thanks anyway.

;)

[18-Wheeler]

Make sure you use a condom on the cable Tony, you never know where the other machine has been! :)

[boofhead]

Direct Cable Connection (A Windows tool, see the HELP files for setup) will work if both computers are using the same OS, but if you try XP/98 it might not work. I tried and could not connect an XP machine to a W98 but it is fiddly and needs to be set up just right, so it could have been my fault. You will also need a special cable to connect the two, and XP only uses a Serial cable, while 98 can do it with a Parallel cable or Serial. When it works it is a good way to read the other machines files (file sharing allowed of course) and to transfer data, although it is not fast.
I apologise if I am telling you how to suck eggs.

[amanoffewwords]

Simplest way would be two Ethernet cards and a crossed Ethernet cable - then run Network Wizard on XP machine. Apart from setting up its own configuration, the wizard also gives you the opportunity to create a network disk to run on the Win 98 machine so that one gets set up automatically too.

HTH:cool:

[Squiddley]

If both PCs have USB ports, there's a new (to me) cable that caught my eye here in HKG recently... it looks like a crossover network cable, but with USB plugs on it and a lump in the middle. Sorry to be so technical (!) The packaging bumf claims it to be driverless, as long as USB is supported by the OS. Have yet to try though, but might be just the ticket.

[The Nr Fairy]

TD :

In chat you mentioned you have two PCs and your nephew lives within 100m.

A small ( 4-port or 8-port ) Ethernet hub will set you back about £50 - £60. Using straight-through RG45 cables, you can plug your PCs into this, and a cable to your nephew's PC will do. As long as the distance is less than 100m along the run of the cable, you should be ok. Of course you also need Ethernet cards for your PCs, but if they're reasonably new they may well be bundled or on the motherboard.

That's the hardware side. The software side is different. You may need to install TCP/IP on all machines, or just the Microsoft networking stuff. TCP/IP is easy once you've done it once, but that's easy for me to say as I do it all day every day.

[flybhx]

The distance is just on range limit for a wireless network which will get rid of the cabling aspect.