The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Connecting two laptops

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by Diver_Down, Jul 28, 2008.

  1. Diver_Down

    Diver_Down Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I hope I'm in the right place.

    Anyway, is there a way to directly connect two laptops using a male-to-male lan cable or USB cable the same way parallel serial cables used to do it back in the Windows 98 days?

    I would also bring up a router/hub but that would be defeating the portability purpose. This is for simple multiple file sharing (one doesn't have bluetooth and a flash drive back and forth is tedious) and low end gaming purposes (SC, Diablo), by the way.
     
    Diver_Down, Jul 28, 2008
    #1
  2. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    6,926
    Messages:
    8,178
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Yup, if both systems have ethernet cards, get an ethernet cross-over cable, and you'll be able to plug the computers directly together, one at either end of the same cable.
     
    Shyster1, Jul 28, 2008
    #2
  3. shoelace_510

    shoelace_510 8700M GT inside... ^-^;

    Reputations:
    276
    Messages:
    1,525
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Otherwise it would be faster if you had a Gigabit cable to connect them with via Ethernet jacks. :)
     
    shoelace_510, Jul 28, 2008
    #3
  4. Diver_Down

    Diver_Down Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Thanks! So both heads have to be the same then? And is there something that I need to activate/initialize in XP once the cables have been hooked up?
     
    Diver_Down, Jul 28, 2008
    #4
  5. Wirelessman

    Wirelessman Monkeymod

    Reputations:
    4,429
    Messages:
    4,401
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Nowadays we don't need crossover cables, just an ordinary cat5e will do. You will need an application to transfer the files from one PC to the other.
     
    Wirelessman, Jul 28, 2008
    #5