Connecting two Windows PCs' network cards directly without a router?

Question

Is this still something that can be done? IIRC you can get a standard network cable and plug it between two network cards but I've never done it and in these days of wireless, haven't heard of anyone doing it for a while.

For reference one PC is W7, the other XPSP3.

Answer 1

Yes you can do this, though you might need a cross-over cable.

However, if your cards are newish they may well support automatic MDI/MDI-X configuration . In which case a normal cable will work.

Answer 2

This set of pages explain in depth what to do, cable wiring and XP configuration. This may be a little bit overkilling, since you probably just need to the confirmation it is possible to crosslink.

http://www.conniq.com/WinXPNetworking_Ethernet_direct_connection.htm

Note that Ethernet sockets are protected against bad wiring, and trying a solution cannot be harmful.

Also note that network cards may handle crossover thru software, with a normal cable (auto MDIX): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_dependent_interface#Auto-MDIX

---

A comment that may be not appropriate to your case: Ethernet LAN usually run at 100 Mb/s, at best 1Gb/s (depending on your LAN adapters, and also your router / switch). If this is to copy data from one computer to another, sometime it is best to use other links (USB, eSATA), or even to use an external intermediate storage.

Answer 3

In addition to the information provided about the type of cabling you will need for this setup you should also observe the IP configuration of each machine. Operating systems may assign a "169" reserved IP address; however, I recommend assigning an IP address to each machine to create a network between the two.