Viewing Thread:
"Right, Networks..."

I need a very simple, layman's terms guide to networking 2 computers together.

They must be able to :

1) share files
2) share users
3) share desktop
4) share peripherals
5) be able to connect to BB (I have BB on one computer at the mo).

What will I need? Exactly? How do I do it? Both will run Windows XP. And keep it simple :D

Thanks :D

Your the 2000th person to say that. cant you read what other people have put

Turbonutter wrote:

> You could get two network cards and a length of crossover for

Er

You could get two network cards and a length of crossover for £20 and that's all you really need. If you want to go for a network with more than two computers you're looking at £8/computer for NICs + £30-$50 for a switch/hub and then your cabling costs, which vary massively depending on where you get them from.

well, like i said,it mite disconect. lol, yeh i forget about that, you oculd do with a hub,i think thats an option anyway. not cheap tho.

If you put a USB - USB cable then i would think it would go BOOM, you will need to get a proper USB network kit, although it is cheaper to buy 2 NIC's and a length of crossover cat5 cable.

c.b.

Nasty boy wrote:
> USB-one big usb lead from one pc to the other, althought you may
> encounter many problems with it disconecting a lot


Won't that go boom?

Thanks to ya all :D

I'll try it out, and get back to you as to how I get on.

to do it i think you could do either of these

a HPDN- Use your phone line as a networking system, Plug a rj 11 lead from your network card to your phone line on both pcs. (not sure about it tho)

USB-one big usb lead from one pc to the other, althought you may encounter many problems with it disconecting a lot

Cat5- Use cat5 cables, link one pc to the other directly

phuzzy wrote:
> 1) share files
> 2) share users
> 3) share desktop
> 4) share peripherals
> 5) be able to connect to BB (I have BB on one computer at the mo).


1 is pretty straightforward, although XP may try and trip you up royally
2 is not possible without a domain name server
3 is a bit trickier, and probably not worth the effort
4 I've never tried to do
5 is very straightforward, XP practically gifts it to you

The walkthrough answer for this would be about 5 pages long, so I'm not going to bother. You only need the equipment Whooo! recommended (unless you're planning to add more computers to your network in the future - then I'd recommend two network cards, a hub and two non-crossover network cables), make sure you get the right sort of network cable for your setup (crossover versus non-crossover/straight through). I'd recommend you set your gateway PC (that is, the computer connected to both the internet and the LAN) to have an internal ip of 192.168.0.1, and the other to have an ip of 192.168.0.2. If you have any problems working it out, do ask questions, but please make them specific, we don't like sorting your life out for you.

You may find www.practicallynetworked.com a useful site to visit. Good luck!

2 Network cards and a crossover cable. simple.