can i make a fast ethernet home network without using a hub

i just finished building my first computer and now id like to network it with the old one so i can share resources. is it possible to connect the two network cards without using a hub. im only going to have 2 comps and ill be sharing a laserjet and a inkjet printer and i dont want a wireless network. thanks for any help.

[BADFlSH]

Yep, all you have to do is put a NIC in each comp and connect them with a cross-over cable. Other than that the rest should be the same process as setting up a network with a hub. Just make sure you get a cross-over cable and not a regular one.

Thankz Badfish, but whats a cross over cable.

shouldnt i know this stuff? im studying for my mcse

[BADFlSH]

A cross-over cable looks just like a regular cat5 cable but two of the pairs are switched inside (I cant remember which ones) Dont know if that made since so I will try to do a little table here :) Imagine that a cat5 cable only has 4 conducters in it (there are more but I am lazy). A regualr cable would look like:
pin1---pin1
pin2---pin2
pin3---pin3
pin4---pin4
A cross-over might look like
pin1---pin1
pin2---pin3
pin3---pin2
pin4---pin4
Hopefully that made sense and maybe someone else can give you a little more info like exactly which wires are crossed but the bottom line is you should be able to get one just about anywere just make sure it says cross-over cable on the package.

[Bires]

...there are a handfull of people out here that will build one and mail it to you. My former roomate and I made a nifty little adapter to make standard cat5 cable twisted on one end to connect two computers-very fast as long as you don't have to travel more than 100 feet or so.

thankz, im gonna go to the microcenter by my house and see what they got. thanz again

[BADFlSH]

No problem. Happy networking :)

[phlick]

Make your own cables!~!~!~!
If you're going to be an MCSE, get some hands on!!


http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00009.asp[/url]

[Edited by phlick on 11-05-2000 at 01:52 AM]

[Bluto]

My friend networked his 2 computers without a hub and he had all kinds of problems; probably because the 2 computers were using different os's. I was helping him out with it, and I thought with NT you can't just tie them together with a crossover cable... He had a lot of problems getting his printer to work from the remote computer.

After dinking with it for a few weeks we finally just put Windows ME on both of them and that solved all his problems...

[hapoo]

Originally posted by Bluto
My friend networked his 2 computers without a hub and he had all kinds of problems; probably because the 2 computers were using different os's. I was helping him out with it, and I thought with NT you can't just tie them together with a crossover cable... He had a lot of problems getting his printer to work from the remote computer.

After dinking with it for a few weeks we finally just put Windows ME on both of them and that solved all his problems...


This has nothing to do with the fact that he used a cross-over cable instead of a hub. All a hub does is redirect the wires from one cable to the appropriate wires on the other cables

[gwilks98]

Windows ME "solving" problems? Did I read that right?

Originally posted by Bluto
My friend networked his 2 computers without a hub and he had all kinds of problems; probably because the 2 computers were using different os's. I was helping him out with it, and I thought with NT you can't just tie them together with a crossover cable... He had a lot of problems getting his printer to work from the remote computer.

After dinking with it for a few weeks we finally just put Windows ME on both of them and that solved all his problems...

i dont think win me fixed it. i do think it made it easier, but only because its made for easier home networking. it would have probably also been easier in win2k (or even win 98 if you played with it A LOT). network printing was harder in nt4 then any of the newer windows products.

[Blu]

Well, printing in NT is definately an experience. The OS was really designed to have the printers being a separate entity on the network, not to be shared from a PC. And the setup is more complicated, but 10 times more customizable out of the box. If you're gonna use the machine for fun and foolin around, NT isn't the thing to do. Neither is Win2k. Microsoft really bungled the marketing on 2k, and people immediately thought it was just an upgrade to 98. Now that Me is out, they sorta fixed it with a 2 square inch graphic on the back of the box that explains the whole upgrade path.

TheBluGuy is absolutly right, all nt products, which include win2000 which is really nt 5.0, are and have always been business products. the way microsoft named them was really confusing and the hype made people think that oh, i gotta be the first one to get win2k cuz itll fix all my problems. when you start up a win2k computer, it says that its based on windows nt. right now i think win98se is the best for home users who DONT network. people who want to network easily should use ME and those who know what they are doing should use win2k

[Bandito]

They even sell a 'resolver' which is a where you plug a normally wired rj45 network cable and it turns it into a cross-over.