By "two way" cable I assume you mean a crossover cable. A regular patch
cable will not work (note: there are some network cards that will allow a
patch cable to work, but this is not the usual case).

Assuming the hardware is ok, let's check the software configuration. You
will need to set the IP address of each computer to a static value. I am
assuming that you already installed networking capabilities on your
computer. Go to Control Panel and open Network Connections. Right click on
the Local Area Connection and select Properties. One of the items displayed
under the General tab will be "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)". Select this item
and click on Properties. Click the radio button that says "Use the following
IP address:" and enter the following values:
IP address: 10.0.0.1  (for the other computer use 10.0.0.2)
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: (leave blank)

There are other IP address values that you can use, but I tried to pick a
simple one.

Leave the DNS item alone and click OK.

Click OK on the original window and you are done. After doing this with the
other computer, the network should be functional. However, there may still
be browsing issues that will keep you from using Windows Explorer from
"seeing" the other computer. We can get to those later.

When you set each computer's name, make sure there are no spaces in the
name. For example, use Dorthy1 and Dorthy2 without any spaces. You may also
set the workgroup name. The default value is WORKGROUP, but you may change
this to something else if you want to by clicking the Change button on the
"Computer Name" tab of System Properties.

Once you completed all of these steps, you should check proper operation.
Here is a good way to do this. Open a CMD window (Start/Run/CMD). In this
window (looks like a DOS interface) type the following command: ipconfig
This should display your IP settings confirming that you set the value
correctly.

Assuming you are on Dorthy1 with IP 10.0.0.1, type: ping 10.0.0.2
This should give you a display saying "Reply from 10.0.0.2: bytes=..."
If you get errors in the ping operation, there is something wrong in the
setup. You might try doing a ping on your own IP address to make sure that
the network software is set up properly.

If ping works ok, then you are ready for sharing files. Open Windows
Explorer and right click on a folder. Select "Sharing and Security" and
click on the "Share this folder" radio button, then click OK and your share
is now enabled.

Go back to the CMD window and type "net share". Your new shared folder
should show up. Now go to the other computer and open a CMD window there. In
the window type "net view \\10.0.0.1" (assuming that the computer you are on
is Dorthy2). The shared folder from Dorthy1 should show up after a couple of
seconds. If it does, then type "net use x: \\10.0.0.1\folder" where "x:"
could be any spare drive letter you want assigned as the network connection
and "folder" is actually the name of your shared folder. If this completes
without error, you may now view the contents of the shared folder using
Windows Explorer.

Let us know how this works out. I will leave it to David Gillette to fill in
other details that he may feel anxious about. He is one of the most
knowledgeable network "gurus" I have had the pleasure of conversing with.

Peter
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-----Original Message-----
Hi Peter

I'm using network cards with a two way cable. We have named the two PCs
Dorothy1 and Dorothy 2. Is this correct?

Dorothy Jones

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