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I am using a wireless router to connect two computers via WIFI to the internet. One computer is in the same location as the wireless router and the second computer is in the basement and is accessing the internet via WIFI from the upstairs wireless router.

From the upstairs computer, can I access the hard drive of the basement computer using the same WIFI signal and viceversa?

Or do I need to connect a physical ethernet cable between the two computers?

I hope this makes sense.

2 Answers 2

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To start, I'm going to assume you have both Windows machines, using Windows 7/8.

  • Follow these instructions to share a folder or drive on the network (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-share-folders-and-files-in-a-windows-7-netw.pageCd-storyboard,pageNum-11.html)

  • Open windows explorer and type in \\sharedcomputername or \\192.168.1.100 replacing the computer name or IP address with that of the other computer. Depending on your share settings, you'll probably have to log in.

  • If it doesn't connect, start by opening command prompt and typing ping sharedcomputername or ping computerIP. If there's no reply, you have network issues, check your router. If there is a reply, but you can't access it in windows explorer, check that your share is set up correctly and check your firewall settings on the shared machine.

  • Now your'e in! Have fun. You'll need to do the same steps vice-versa if you want to be able to access the other computer.

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You do not need to a physical Ethernet cable. All you need is to have both computers connected to the same network. The same Wireless network is just as valid as a same wired network.

You did not specify an OS for either computer, so I can only guess here. If it is windows you want to look at the folder sharing part over smb. If it is Windows to Linux the same is called Samba. If both are linux then NFS might be more useful.

Regardless, you do not need a physical cable. Wireless will work fine for this.

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  • oops, I am using Windows 7 Pro. So its all about software configuration at this point I guess??
    – jacob
    Dec 31, 2013 at 1:43
  • With both computers running win7 (or win8) creating a homegroup might be the easiest way. Either that, or share folders on both, or add a third device (like a NAS). But that was not the question asked and there are already a few similar question like that on Super User. Check those and see if they work for you. If not you can always ask a new question (or edit the current one, though if it changes a lot then I think that is not the right way).
    – Hennes
    Dec 31, 2013 at 1:49
  • I missed the second comment: Yes, at this point it is all about software configuration.
    – Hennes
    Dec 31, 2013 at 1:58

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