How to Connect a Computer to Another Computer

This article is for people who want to share files between two or more computers or share a hard drive or printer. The process is fairly simple and can be done with a few pieces of hardware and a couple of software tweaks. This article will explain how to connect one computer to a second computer.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cat5 crossover cable

Connecting a Computer to Another Computer

1. Turn both computers off. If you don’t do this before the whole process begins, your operating systems may not start properly or one computer may try to boot itself up from the other.

2. Plug one end of the CAT5 crossover cable into each of the computers’ Ethernet ports.

3. Turn both computers on. If you need to sign into your operating system, do this now just like normal.

4. Open "My Computer" on both computers and click on "Properties." Select "Computer Name" and then "Change." Give each computer a unique name. It doesn’t matter what, since you’re only using this for organizational purposes.

5. Point your mouse over "My Network Places" and right click. The click on "Properties" and choose "Internet Protocol" (TCP/IP.) Give each computer a unique IP address. Use 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2. Set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 for both.

6. Click on the computer’s hard drive that you want to share (this can be both) and click on sharing and security to share hard drives between the computers.

7. Follow the same process for printer sharing. Click on "Printers" in "My Computer." Make sure you give your printer a name so that you and your computers can recognize it. In the left margin, click "Share This Printer."

Resources

• Connect two computers
• Two computers