Have you ever had to connect two computers together without connecting to a wireless network? I previously wrote about how to connect two computers wirelessly using a peer-to-peer wireless network, but it’s not as fast as a direct connection.
If your computers are connected to a wired network, you can network the two computers and then exchange files and folders, but that’s a lot of work! An easier way is to just create a homegroup if you are using Windows 7 or higher. The third way is to use a crossover cable to connect two computers and transfer data.
For this setting to work, you need to make sure it is properly configured or configured. I will try to go through all the steps in this article.
Step 1 – Configure IP Addresses
Usually, if you are using a crossover cable to connect two computers, they are not connected to the local network. In this case, you will need to configure static IP addresses for each computer.
You need to make sure both computers have IP addresses that are on the same subnet. For example, if you give one computer the IP address 192.168.0.1, then you should give the second computer the IP address 192.168.0.2.
– /
If you used the above IP addresses, you should use the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. If you are using the wrong subnet mask, the connection will not work.
Finally, the default gateway value must be the same on both machines. You can choose which IP address you want to use, but use it on both computers as the default gateway. This is what my setup looks like for one computer:
It’s worth noting that you can technically leave the Default Gateway and Preferred DNS Server fields blank as you don’t really need to connect to any device outside of your local network. If you need more information on static IPs, be sure to read my post on How to Assign a Static IP Address in Windows and Mac.
Step 2 – Crossover Cable
The second thing you need to check is if you have a suitable crossover cable. In principle, there are several different types of crossover cables, but it is best to purchase a standard crossover cable in which the green and orange pairs are reversed and the brown and blue pairs remain in the same position.
The only pins that need to be crossed are 1.3 and 2.6. So just check both ends of the cable and make sure it matches the diagram. You can buy a cheap 10ft crossover cable from Amazon for $ 5, or get crossover adapters, which are slightly more expensive but can turn any Ethernet cable into a crossover cable.
Step 3 – local user accounts
If you are having problems accessing files in both directions, you may need to create a user account on each computer with the same name and password. This helps to avoid any “Access Denied” pop-up errors.
Make sure the accounts are also administrator accounts! Better to create a new account than rename the current one.
Step 4 – disable firewalls
Finally, you must turn off the firewall on both computers to make sure none of the file sharing ports are blocked. You can do this by going to Control Panel and then to Windows Firewall. Click Off. If you are using a third-party firewall, be sure to disable it.
You will definitely want to go back and turn on the firewall after the file transfer is complete. Turning off your firewall for an extended period of time is dangerous because you are effectively opening the entire Internet to your computer.
That’s all! If you follow all these steps, each computer should be able to access the other correctly. You can test the connection by opening a command prompt (click start and type cmd) and try pinging another computer. Just enter the word ping followed by the IP address of the other computer.
You should now be able to go to Network Neighborhood or Network in Windows Explorer and access another computer. You will also need to set up a shared folder if you want to transfer files. Also check out my other post which talks about all the other ways to share files between multiple computers If you have any problems, please leave a comment here and I will try to help! Enjoy!
–