I am having trouble linking two computers together on a network. Heres my situation:
I have one computer directly linked to my other computer via Cat5 network cable. The cable goes directly to the other computer via the network card. All I get when I link them together is nothing. They dont detect each other, no lights flash on the network cards. I've tried everything, do I need a router or something? Any help would be cool.
Thx, SnArF

you probably need a hub, and then make a shared folder that can be shared through your network....Im not an expert cause i havent done it before...wait until more people answer this.

Ok... Whats a hub?

EDIT: Yeah, looks like I'll need to buy a Hub. Well, its 1:35 in the morning, screw this networking shit, I'm going to bed.

Posted by SnArF Ok... Whats a hub? EDIT: Yeah, looks like I'll need to buy a Hub. Well, its 1:35 in the morning, screw this networking shit, I'm going to bed.

One of these:
http://www.uer.ca/...d=1&threadid=16155

If you are going the PC to PC with cabling then to save the money from buying the hub, go buy Crossover cable. Loads cheaper than the hub.

Yeah, a crossover cable, unless your ethernet card is autosensing for that shit. (get a Mac... ) Otherwise you'll need a hub and a regular cat-5 cable for each computer to connect to the hub with.

It sounds like you're using a normal patch cable vs. a crossover cable. Either a hub with another patch cable will work or a single crossover cable. If all you want is to link 2 computers together once in a while, then a crossover cable will do your needs. However if you want to establish a permanent network of sorts then a hub or a switch (a switch is better then a hub) will better suit your needs. A switch will then allow you to introduce a third computer when needed.

Sounds good, I think I'll break down and go get a cheap switch off Ebay or something. My two computers are soon to be networked together, so I think I'll get a switch. We are yet to get high speed internet, but when we do, I guess I'll buy a smart router, not one of those crappy linksys ones. Thank you for help though!
-SnArF

Linksys isn't bad, just do not get the cheap ones, the expensive ones are very good.

Posted by I Poke Badgers With Spoons Linksys isn't bad, just do not get the cheap ones, the expensive ones are very good.

Linksys doesn't make any smart routers, thats why the connections suck.

Posted by SnArF Linksys doesn't make any smart routers, thats why the connections suck.

What brands are you thinking of?

Posted by SnArF Linksys doesn't make any smart routers, thats why the connections suck.

Could you elaborate a little more on that please?

Posted by ex-goose-villager Could you elaborate a little more on that please?

Linksys routers split the packets and send them one way or the other. Thats how most cheap routers work. The quality ones copy and split the packets of information going to your computer, that way, network traffic doesn't slow you down.

Yeah, but it doesn't really matter since your connection is 10/100/1000 on a wired connection. Wireless I can understand since it is only 11 on 802.11b and 54 on 802.11g

Posted by Magical Trevor Yeah, but it doesn't really matter since your connection is 10/100/1000 on a wired connection. Wireless I can understand since it is only 11 on 802.11b and 54 on 802.11g

What does that have to do with anything?

Posted by SnArF What does that have to do with anything?

that it doesn't matter whether it splits the packet or it copies the packet.

Speaking as someone who works as a network professional, I must admit I am confused as to what you guys are talking about.

"Smart" routers? All home "routers" are smart in that they have a CPU instead of just dumb packet forwarding hardware. They use this CPU to perform many of their functions such as routing, DHCP server, configuration web server, etc. However, most of them are hardly routers at all. More accurately they are NAT devices, network address translation. They take the requests from your computers that are addressed to the internet and translate the source IP and port to appear to come from the router itself. When the remote internet host replies to the router it remembers which internal computer originated the request and translates the IP and port back. By using multiple ports the router can keep track of many connections and computers. Internet connection sharing software does the same thing on a PC. A nice side affect to NAT is that if a remote computer tries to make a connection to the router that does not have an already established connection it will be rejected because the router doesn't know which internal computer to forward it to. This makes it appear to be a firewall, but it is not (though some routers do have actual firewalls in addition to NAT).

"Splits or copies the packet"? This one got me really confused. I assume you mean the difference between a switch and a hub. Switches and hubs are ethernet level devices and don't care about TCP/IP at all. Switches keep track of the hardware addresses of the computers and/or other ethernet devices (including the router itself if the switch is built into one) and only forward packets to the hardware port that the destination device is attached to. Hubs on the other hand blindly forward packets to all ports, which can result in collisions and slowdowns. Though housed in the same box, switches built into routers are independent devices; if the packet is not destined for the internet then the router's CPU is not involved at all. I have even had a router where the CPU fried but the switch part kept working.

I have never seen a router that had a hub instead of a switch, so as far as internal bandwith goes it doesn't matter at all if you have a Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc. They will all switch ethernet packets exactly the same. You can dislike Linksys for other reasons, but this is not one of them.