wireless sharing

Now this is not normal wireless sharing.

What I would like to do when I go to school is to have 2 laptops. A MSI Wind (with Vista new HD and RAM) and another laptop (15 or 17 with vista) for a better key board and screen.

What is the best way to wirelessly connect these to computers to see eachothers hard disks. But if I am in a dorm I do not want anyone else to know I am doing this or be able to get in. So I would like to have each laptop braudcasting to eachother not even useing the local wireless (while having security).

Second option is to have a cable. But I do not know how to do this. How would I connect the 2 laptops. Ethernet or usb. Right now in my house I have a router with shared files but I do not want to use shared files I just want to see everything.

 

The simplest solution would be to get a cat5e or better ethernet cable and just plug one end into each computer, manually set up the NIC IP address and other data (which is very simple, anyone here can walk you through it later if you want), and then on each computer pick which drives/folders you want to share and configure sharing on them using the available wizard in _Vista.

If you want to do it wirelessly, then you'd need to set up a two-peer peer-to-peer network (start off using the built-in wizard), and then, again, share the drives/folders you want to share.

The wired ethernet cable will be the best solution because it would be both the fastest and the most secure.

 

So is it just plug and go with a NIC IP?

 

since you are connecting like devices directly, you need a cat5e or better crossover cable

standard ethernet cable will not work

 

No need of crossover cables these days, NIC's are very intelligent now.

Whether you are using wireless or not, you will still have to make the desired folder shareable if you want to see its contents from another computer.

 

I disagree.

Not all NICs are auto-sensing--even new ones. It all depends on what you have. To be safe, whenever connection "like" devices (PC to PC, switch to switch on the switch uplink) you really should stay with crossover unless you know for certain the port is auto-sensing.

That way, you can eliminate that as an issue if something is not working properly.

I have no idea what they are sticking in the MSI Wind or what his old 15 or 17 inch laptop is--just because it has Vista on it does not mean it has an auto-sensing port. I have a 4 year old laptop with Vista on it and its NIC port is not and have run into many PCs in the last year that do not.

I always carry both a crossover and patch cable just to be safe

 

what are corssover and patch cables? Can you provie a link?

 

A crossover cable flips two wires of a normal ethernet cable..a patch cable is just a normal ethernet cable.

I shouldn't have used that term, really. A patch cable is really just a short ethernet cable or ethernet over twisted pair cable, but is more typically used to connect a router or switch to a patch panel....don't worry about that.

Just think ethernet or crossover--or, as wirelessman points out, if you KNOW the ports are autosensing, it does not matter what cable you have.

Anything made in the last year should be auto-sensing, but if you go back more than two years it is more of a flip of the coin...go back four years and autosensing ports on computers are more rare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_over_twisted_pair

 

Well the bigger computer I will get might be a Dell Studio or some other laptop comming out in late 2008 or early 2009.

 

ohh, I thought you were talking about a future roommate, or something

 

lol

filler filler