Hi! Can anyone tell me if it is possible to connect two PC's through Ethernet card? I use Direct Cable Connection through serial port to share files, however, I would like to connect two PC's for multiplayer gaming, just like through LAN, but direct connection without any other service. If it is possible, could you please give me step by step directions on how to do this? Thanks in advance!

I posted this earlier to help everyone. I have noticed alot of questions about home networking lately and problems people are having setting up a home network. So i decided to just post this here for anyone that may need it. Ok I am going to go through all the steps even though you may have already done them. First you need 2 network cards and a crossover cable. A crossover cable is different than a normal ethernet cable. so be sure you get a crossover cable. If you have a cable and are unsure if it is a crossover cable then you can look at the diagram at this site to see if it is or not. Crossover Cable Now you need to install the network cards in both computers and if they are not automatically detected by windows then you will need to install the appropriate drivers for them. After the cards are install connect the two computers using the crossover cable. Now here is a step that alot of people get messed up on. Make sure that if one computer has a IPX/SX protocol the other does also and so on with TCP/IP and NETBEUI. Now select the TCP/IP protocol (home) that refers to your NIC (network interface card) and set the IP address for one computer to 192.168.0.1 and the other computer to 192.168.0.2 and the subnet to both to 255.255.255.0 Now make sure client for microsoft networks login installed on both computers. Make sure you have file and print sharing enabled on both also. Now after all this is done you can check communication between you computers by doing a process called pinging. What this does is send information from one PC to the other and then back. If everything is set up proper and communication is correct you will get a reply from the other PC. To do this goto Start/Run and type "ping 192.168.0.2" without the quotations. Do this from the from the first PC that you set the IP to 192.168.0.1 if you get a reply then you should be ready to go. Now if you have trouble logging in to the network or you have rebooted and windows says you the login has failed then try logging off by going to Start/Run and then selecting log-off. Then log back in and make sure you enter a name and password. If you or anyone else has any problems after doing this feel free to contact me at TTStudio4PCs@aol.com and I will help you further. I hope this has been of help to you and others. If you have anymore questions dont hesitate to contact me. Goodluck, Chris

http://www.wown.com aka http://www.helmig.com (Helmig's site - with excellent step-by-step, (and screen-shots) tutorials for all flavours of M$ networking - basics upwards.) http://www.sohointer.net http://www.practicallynetworked.com (Tim Higgins site.) All will tell you how it's done.

I have a direct connection pc to pc/ Ethernet to Ethernet connection home network. I have a dsl modem. This modem is connected threw the usb. This is because I only have one Ethernet card on each computer and the network is not scalable for because of lack of hub or router. I was once able to use the internet on the other one when I had a dialup. I used proxy software to accomplish it, but I later found out it was not necessary. The reason why this worked was because the computer connecting to the internet with the modem used the local area network 1. This are network had the settings for the other computer to also talk to it. So the other computer only had to use local area network 1 connection to get on the internet. The problem now is that the dsl threw the usb created another different local area network 2 and I have no idea how to get the other computer to access local area network 2. Is it even possible that the other computer will be able to get on the internet this way? Or do I have to breakdown and get a real network setup with hub? Lex

Chris, Thanks for your tips, I tried last last night it working perfectly.