How do you hook up 2 computers with internet in 1 house?

Question

How do you hook up 2 computers with internet in 1 house?

Answer 1

Get a Linksys Router, either A. Hook the router up to one computer and get a Linksys Wireless Card for the other to grab signal from your router or B. Get 2 wireless cards if your computers can't reach your router with cables.

Answer 2

You don't actually need a router for only two computers > you can connect them with one “crossover” type Ethernet cable. In this set up Computer1 will need to be turned on for computer2 to access the internet.

A connection by means of a router is more secure but requires a “regular” type Ethernet cable… a router will block any would be hackers from crossing into your Network….because, they would only see the IP of the router.

In this set up any computer can connect to the internet independently of the other(s)

NO ROUTER:

1. Connect the incoming ISP signal to the modem.

2. Use a short "regular" Ethernet cable to connect the modem to the first computer1.

3. Use a longer CROSSOVER cable to connect computer1 to computer2.

Using a “CROSSOVER” cable (no router):

Now, to connect computer1 to computer2

the back of computer1 will need to have another RJ 45 port (recommended)

OR at least a USB port.

with ROUTER

1. Use the appropriate cable to connect the incoming ISP signal to the modem. For dial-up you’ll need twisted pair. For cable you’ll need regular Ethernet cable.

2. Use a short regular Ethernet cable to connect the modem to the regular ROUTER. If you have computers that have “wireless” capability, then you do not need to go on to 3. and 4.  

You can also purchase a type of router that has BOTH wired and wireless capability, depending on the need of the kind of computers you have.

3. For NON-wireless Use a short regular Ethernet cable to connect the router to computer1.

4. For NON-wireless Use a bit longer additional Ethernet cable to connect the router to

computer 2.

FOR BOTH COMPUTERS TO BE ABLE TO SHARE FILES:

To share files you will need to be using the SAME File System like FAT or NTFS all computers for your network.

To open your computer over the network for specific users to access.

1. Go to START > Control Panel > Windows Firewall >

Tab General select ON >

then on tab EXCEPTIONS > ALLOW file and print sharing on port 80.

2. All users should be Networked to join the same WORKGROUP with exact name spelling

Example: OURGROUPNAME

3. Then the computer(s) will map their drives for the other computers to access.

each computer will get a different mapped drive letter

like Z, Y, X etc

4.  Also in MyNetwork Neighborhood you need to run the wizard, on each computer, and have each computer’s name available.  After running the wizard on computer 1, you will need a source to copy the information over

such as a floppy disk, or a removable flash drive, to transfer the information to the other computers.

5. Then on each computer, in Network Neighborhood

create a folder named SHARED DOCS

and then for every file you want to share

RIGHT-click/drag/copy the file into the Shared Docs folder

6.  After file sharing is configured on both computers you should be able to access files easily.

The path I use to view files on my other computer is

Right Click START > left Click Explore >

scroll down to MyNetwork Neighborhood > and open the Workgroup folder >

find the mapped drive to the other computer and double click >

wait a few seconds and it will display all of the shared files on the other computer.

^j^

Answer 3

Either use a router to distribute the connection to the computers (as another answer has detailed)

Or connect one computer to the internet, and connect the other through it (Internet Connection Sharing in Windows, Internet Sharing in Mac OS). Note that this requires one computer to be on and online whenever the other wants to use the internet, and despite being a bit cheaper, isn't very comfortable.