Question for the computer expert (ethernet related)... (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

I have two computers with network cards (10/100 base T ethernet) and I want to transfer a lot of information between the two. I figure the fastest way is to connect the two via a cable. In the old days, you would have used a serial cable but I believe there are faster ways now, at least I hope so. Unfortunately, only one has firewire. Both have USB.
So can I connect the two with a cat 5 cable and use Windows Networking protocol so that each computer will "see" the other one ? I mean if you hook two computers up via their 10/100 base T cards, you could transfer info at 100 Mbps right ? that would do the trick....
Any suggestions ? Any good place to go on the net to find the answer (i.e. not a general discussion group) ?

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[AdrianJ]

You'll need a null-modem ethernet cable. Connecting a regular ethernet cable between the two will not work (at least I'm fairly certain of that.) You could always buy a 100 M Hub to connect the two together.
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Adrian Jones

 

[Alex-C]

Hmmmm....well, we have several 100 M hubs here at work that I could use. This entire transfer would probably not take too long (xfer ~ 2-3 Gb).
So I could use reg. ethernet cables into the hub ?
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[Bill Catherall]

To connect one computer directly to another using the ethernet network card you need to use a crossover cable. This is a special kind of cat5 cable that has some of the wires crossed. It allows for direct communication. If you don't have one of those then you'd have to use a hub that does the crossing for you. But crossover cable is pretty easy to find and is the same price as straight through cable.
Once the computers are connected you will have to name them and set up sharing. Then you'll be able to see them in Network Neighborhood.
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Bill

 

[Ryan Wright]

Alex,
Bill hit the nail on the head. If you have a hub you just use regular old cat 5 ethernet cables. Otherwise, you need the crossover cable. The reason being is the send/receive pairs have to be swapped. Otherwise both network cards are trying to send and receive on the same pairs. Doesn't work; it needs to go:
PC 1 Send -----------> PC 2 Receive
PC 1 Receive Pin 1
Pin 2 -----> Pin 2
Pin 3 -----> Pin 3
etc. Cat 5 cable has 8 wires (4 pairs). The hub swaps the send/receive pairs internally. 10/100 ethernet actually only uses pins 1, 2, 3 and 6. A crossover cable looks like:
1 ----------> 2
2 ----------> 1
3 ----------> 6
4 ----------> 4
5 ----------> 5
6 ----------> 3
7 ----------> 7
8 ----------> 8
In other words, you swap pins 1 & 2, and pins 3 & 6. 4, 5, 7, and 8 are straight through (they're unused anyway so you could leave them out, but then you lose the cat5 specification on the cable).
That's probably way more info than you really wanted to know. What does it all mean to you? Go down to your local computer or even office supply store and buy a cat-5 crossover cable. Plug one end into each network card, setup Windows networking & you're good to go.
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-Ryan (http://www.ryanwright.com )
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach him to use the HTF and keep him occupied for life.

 

[Alex-C]

Hey Ryan, thanks for all the technical info.
If I already have a hub that I can use, and regluar (non-crossover) cat-5 cable, wouldn't be easier to just plug the computers into the hub and go from there ?
Easier, that is than making a 5 minute trip to the computer store and getting some cable (which is no big deal anyways).
My question is: on the little Linksys 4 port hub that I want to use, there is one slot for uplink and then four slots for the computers to plug in....do both of my computers that I want to link go into the ports or does one of them go into the uplink slot ?

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[AdrianJ]

You want to plug in both computer to regular slots on your hub. The uplink is only if you are going to connect into a seperate network.
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Adrian Jones

 

[AaronNWilson]

If this is a one time transfer (such as mp3s, movies etc) then I think the easiest thing to do would be to place the harddrive in your computer and just copy the stuff from that harddrive to your harddrive.
Aaron

 

[Alex-C]

Cool....thanks for all the info. One machine is running windows ME so it sounds like a breeze.

 

[Ryan Wright]

If I already have a hub that I can use, and regluar (non-crossover) cat-5 cable, wouldn't be easier to just plug the computers into the hub and go from there?

Yep. One cable from each computer, into the hub. Link lights will come on and then you just configure the PCs.
The uplink port is used to connect multiple hubs together. Essentially it's just another ethernet port that has the send/receive swapped. See, to connect two hubs together, you also have to use a crossover cable. The uplink port lets you use a regular cat5 cable by doing the swapping internally. Your hub is really a 5 port hub. If you wanted to connect a 5th computer to it, you could plug a crossover cable from the 5th computer into the uplink port. That would essentially "un-cross" the pairs and give you a 5th port.
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-Ryan (http://www.ryanwright.com )
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach him to use the HTF and keep him occupied for life.

 

[Alex-C]

Any tips on the whole "configure the computers" portion of this ????
Would I use the client for ms networks ? One computer has Windows ME running....
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[Kimmo Jaskari]

It's really quite simple. Right-click on the "My Network Places" icon on your desktop and choose properties. You should find either the network settings directly or an icon for "Local Area Network" or some such. Open it and you should have a list of installed network software components.
You need "Client for Microsoft Networks", "File and printer sharing for microsoft networks" and a protocol; netbeui, ipx/spx are easier than TCP/IP if all you want is a network that connects the two machines. If you want them to be able to communicate on the Internet, you need to install TCP/IP as well.
Once you have those components installed on both machines and the cables hooked up via the hub, you can simply right-click on a folder on one computer and choose "sharing". Since this network is probably one with no connection to the outside world, just choose full priviledges on the share and you should be able to see the folder from the other machine via the network, and be able to copy stuff to and from that folder across the network. Then just drag and drop files at will.
Not difficult if you already have the network cards installed with drivers etc and have the hub and the cat 5 cables.
Good luck.
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/Kimmo

 

[Graeme Clark]

Kimmo's method is correct.
WinME does have a Network Wizard that can help you with getting at least that one computer setup.
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[Alex-C]

Just because I am curious, I have two Sony Vaio computers with firewire ports and a fire wire cable, I am assuming the set up is probably the same, and I should try to use IPX instead of TCP/IP protocol right ?
I need to transfer some info from my laptop to my desktop using the firewire cable....

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

I have no actual experience with Firewire, but it is not a networking solution per se. It's more along the lines of USB or even a harddrive interface.
It probably is quite possible to connect two machines via firewire, but it won't involve the networking components; you need some other form of driver, I would guess.
But like I said, I would guess..

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/Kimmo

 

[Darren Lewis]

You can network using a whole variety of connections these days, ethernet just being one way. You can even do it using wireless networks.
Have a look at this site for some good info in plain English.
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My HT My DVD Collection

 

[brian a]

Ryan,
Isn't it 1-3 and 2-6 for a crossover cable? I make several of these a week and that's the pin-outs that I've always used. Just wanted to be sure.
brianca..