Complex Computer Networking Question

I'll do my best to explain this clearly, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I know I'm no writer.

I have a laptop in my room, which access the internet via 802.11b through a router on the other side of the house. It has available USB ports, serial port, parallel port, and 10/100 Cat 5 port. This computer is running XP Pro.

I also have a desktop computer in my room, running 98 SE. It has no internet, but has an avaible 10/100 Cat 5 port, USB ports, serial port, and parallel port.

I was looking around on settings, I think I should be able to plug the desktop into my laptop, and give the desktop some internet access.

Can somebody tell me how to do this? What kind of cable do I need? How does this work with the two different OSs?

Thanks you guys!

BTW, the reason I want to do this, and not get a wireless card for the desktop, is money. If I can just buy a cable, and do the same thing, that would be excellent!

maybe add a wirelss card to pc,

I know raggie, that would be a heck of a lot easier. I would like to save some money though, if possible.

o i just saw it has ethernet ports and ya hub has ports to just run some cat 5 from hub to pc. and set up pc to axcess it that way.in xp its should be very easy.i conect thru a router her used to have a few pc.s hooked up here

opps i meant roter not hub

It sounds like his router is on the opposite side of the house as his desktop and laptop. Aaron -- you can easily setup an ICS using XP. It's a very simple process actually. I'm no longer using XP but I set one up for a while at home and it's rather self explanatory. Simply go into your network connections folder and on the left side (unless you have turned off the XP panel thing) you should see a button that says, "Run Network Wizard" or something to that effect. Follow that wizard and it will help you setup the network. (Before you run the wizard though, connect the two computers of course with your cat 5 cable. Make sure it's crossover cable and not straight through!) Sorry for the vague instructions. If you need more specific details then I'll be happy to run downstairs and check on my XP computer for ya.

You could also try using just an ethernet _crossover_ cable direct from ethernet port to ethernet port, without a hub or router. These are available at stores like CompUSA. But you need the crossover type not the typical ethernet cable.


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Jeff

You can turn on Internet connection sharing on the laptop, you'll then see a network bridge in your network connections. Click "add a connection" and follow the wizard.

Then use a Cat-5 cable between the laptop and desktop. I think the Cat-5 cable has to be a crossover cable. Some hubs have a crossover switch, maybe some network cards have one too. If not most computer places carry them.

Another way is to get a wireless adaptor for the desktop, either PCI or USB -- I like the USB ones because it's on the end of a cable so you can put it where the antenna gets a good signal -- the PCI ones usually have the antenna behind the metal computer case nested in among a lot of cables laden with digital noise.

Like other suggestions, you'll have to connect the 2 PC's via the 10/100 ethernet port. This will require a special Cat 5 cable, called a crossover cable. This allows 2 ethernet devices to connect to each other without a hub or switch in between. Internet Connection Sharing will need to be configured on the XP laptop computer. The configuration wizard will tell you to put a blank floppy in to create a driver disk for the connecting PC's. You use this to install ICS on the Win98 PC.

It's a lot of work doing it this way and you still have to buy the crossover cable ($10-$20 depending on length). A wireless network card that plugs into a PCI slot in the PC is the preferred way to do this so the PC can communicate directly to the router. A quick check of the CompUSA website shows several PCI wireless network adaptors in the $40 - $80 range.

So this should work?

Yup. That'll work just fine.