software to connect 2 computers through wifi

Question

I am looking for a software to easy connect 2 computers through wifi. I want to transfer big files so I dont want to use my slow internet connection. I want something easy to setup (I like Teamviewer but it is not suitable for my situation because of slow internet connection). I know that I can setup it up in Win XP but I find it very difficult to setup and to change all my IP settings. So some software app just for this purpose would be great. Or is the option through XP the only one?

Answer 1

My recommendation is to create an ad-hoc wireless network, then connect your internet connection (Ethernet?) to one of the computers, and bridge the WiFi card and the LAN card. Then connect your second computer to the ad-hoc wireless network.

Variation 1: No WiFi or Internet

Directly connect the two laptops with an ethernet cable. Adapted from another question:

Most modern computers come with an ethernet adapter that has the capability to connect to another ethernet adapter without a crossover cable. This is called Auto-MDIX. Simply connect the network interface from one computer to the network interface on the other computer.

Once they're plugged in, there might be some sort of automatically-configured network setup. That may work in some cases, but not others. For fun and extra credit, let's create a new subnet for you to use just between the two computers.

First, we need to pick a "subnet" to use. It's easiest to use one different from your internal network. Let's choose 192.168.253.0/24. When you connect the two systems together, you'll need to give each system an IP address, as well as configure host names. Make sure you're configuring the wired, ethernet interface and not the wireless interface. All of this configuration can be done through the GUI.

Here's your network configuration for the First Windows machine ("Use the following IP address"):

IP Address: 192.168.253.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: blank

While we're at it, don't configure DNS either, we'll do that later.

Here's your network configuration for the Second Windows machine

IP Address: 192.168.253.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: blank

If everything's hooked up, you should be able to address each computer by their respective IP addresses. This lets you ensure that you are connecting to the wired, and not wireless interface. If you want to add hostname resolution, let's just make a change to the hosts file:

On the First Windows computer:

edit %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, notepad will do.

Add the following line:
192.168.253.2 xptwo-wired

You can replace xptwo-wired with whatever name you want to use for that system.

And save.

On the Second Windows computer:

edit %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, notepad will do.

Add the following line:
192.168.253.1 xpone-wired

To test whether this works, ping each system using the name. Open up a terminal window, and run the following:

ping HOSTNAME, where HOSTNAME is the name you used above for the opposite machine.

Variation 2: No Ethernet or Internet

Create an ad-hoc wireless network. Then connect your second computer to the ad-hoc wireless network.

Something different

You could take a look at this other question that may be helpful.