How to Connect Two Computers Without a Router
Let’s assume you have two computers at home and you want to connect
them together so that you can easily share an internet connection
between the two machines or transfer photos, music and other files from
one computer to another. How do you do this?
Connect Two Computers with an Ethernet Cable
There
are two options – you can either buy a router or, if you are looking
for something more simple and don’t want to spend money on new
networking hardware, you can connect the two computers using a
commonly-available cable. The latter method doesn’t involve any
complicated network settings and you will still be able to share files,
internet connection, and even printers between computers.
To set
up this basic wired home network, all you need is an inexpensive
Ethernet crossover cable and the other requirement is that network
cards* (also known as LAN or Ethernet cards) should be installed on each
of you computers.
[*] This should not be an issue because network
cards are available on most newer machines by default but if you are
working with a very old computer, you can either attach an internal LAN
card to your computer’s motherboard or go for a USB Network adapter that will turn a USB port into an Ethernet (RJ45) port.
An Ethernet crossover cable looks like a standard Ethernet cable but the internal wiring is a little different. You can purchase crossover cables at Amazon.com or from your local computer store. If you have trouble finding them, you can purchase an inexpensive crossover adaptor and that will let you use any standard Ethernet cable as a crossover cable.
Connect Computers with an Ethernet Crossover Cable
Before
connecting the two computers with a physical cable, make sure that both
machine are using the same workgroup. Here is step-by-step guide that
explains how you can change the workgroup of your computers.
Changing workgroup in Windows XP – From the Start
menu, right-click “My Computer.” Select Properties in the drop-down
menu, and then select the second tab that says “Computer Name” from the
System Properties window. Now click the “Change” button, enter a unique
Workgroup name and reboot your computer.
Changing workgroup in Windows 7 or Vista
– Open the Control Panel, type “Workgroup” in the search box, and
select the entry that says “Change Workgroup Name.” Click the “Change”
button, enter a Workgroup name and restart the computer. Windows 7 users
can skip one step; simply type “Workgroup” in the search box in the
start menu, and select the first entry, then proceed as above.
Now
that the workgroups are same for both computers, connect the two
computers together using the Ethernet crossover cable. Simply plug-in
one end of the crossover cable into the network adapter of Computer A
and connect the other end of the cable to the network adapter of
Computer B.
Windows will automatically recognize the new network,
and you can now easily view files and folder that the other computer
has shared. Simply open Networks from the Start Menu (or the Control
Panel), and you should see the other computer by its name. You can then
browse any shared files on the other computer, and can even utilize
shared printers.
Troubleshooting – If you do not
see the other computer under Networks, you probably have a prompt at
the top of your Network window saying that Network discovery is turned
off . Select “Turn on Network Discovery and File Sharing.” In the next
prompt, select “No, make the network I am connected to a private
network.” Now you should see the other computer on the home network.
[*] While
it is possible to share files between two computers connected with a
crossover cable without making them part of the same workgroup, the
method will only work if both computers have this network set as a
private network, and may still cause problems. It is therefore advisable
to have both computers on the same workgroup before sharing files and
printers.
Share an Internet Connection Between Two Computers
There are scenarios where you may want to share the same internet connection between two computers. For instance:
Situation A - You have setup a Wi-Fi network at home
but your old desktop computer doesn’t have a wireless network card. In
that case, you can use the laptop to connect to the internet wirelessly
and then share that same connection with the desktop over a crossover
Ethernet cable.
Situation B – You have a netbook
with a built-in cellular data connection. You can share that connection
with any another computer at home through the crossover Ethernet cable.
Situation C
– You use a (slow) Wireless USB modem with your laptop computer while
your desktop is connected to an ADSL Broadband line and there’s no
router at home. For any bandwidth intensive tasks, like when you want to
backup photos from your laptop to an online service, you can connect the laptop to the desktop and things will happen much faster. OK, let’s look at the steps required for sharing an Internet connection.
First,
if you only wish to share internet connection and not files, both
computers need not belong to the same workgroup. All you need to do is
to connect the two computers with the Ethernet crossover cable, and then
turn on Internet connection sharing in the computer that already has an
Internet connection. The instructions vary for different versions of
Windows:
For Windows XP – Select “Network and Internet Connections” from the Control Panel and click “Network Connections.”
Right-click
on the network connection you wish to share (the one connected to the
internet), select Properties, click on the “Advanced” tab, and then
check the box that says “Allow other network users to connect through
this computer’s Internet connection.” Click OK, and the second computer
that you have connected to this computer with the Crossover Cable
should have internet access now.
For Windows 7 and Vista – Open Control Panel, enter “network connections” in the search box on the top right and select “View Network Connections.”
Right-click
on the network connection you wish to share (this must be the one
connected to the internet) and select Properties. Select the “Sharing”
tab and then check the option that says “Allow other network users to
connect through this computer’s Internet connection.” Click OK, and the
other computer you have connected to this Windows 7 or Vista computer
should have internet access now.
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