Jumping onto a cloud of faith.

Hello fellow bloggers and friends,

In this post you will learn how to use a crossover cable to share files and printer across 2 or more computers. From my humble contribution and time, here we go.

Qn. What is a crossover cable?
Ans : It is similar to the commonly used LAN cable (Standard Category 5 Ethernet Cable) in size and the cable head. The only difference is that the wiring colours in LAN and xover cable is slightly different in order. LAN cable allows you to connect your computer to the modem, connect to a ethernet server. A xover cable does more. On top of all that, it can let you transfer data from hardware to hardware ( i.e computer to computer) which LAN cable prohibits. It is most useful when you cannot afford or have a external hdd or large storage available to transfer your files to nearby systems.

Now I will show you how to go about setting up the xover cable.

1. Buy the xover cable from any computer or IT stores. Ask for help if you cannot find or identify the xover cable. As I have tried, it is impossible to screen the different wiring in both types of cable and differentiate which is the normal LAN and the xover cable.

2. Plug each end of the cables to each ethernet port on computers. For laptops, when you plug in there is usually a green light beside the port opening.

3. We will use comp A and B for easier explanation. You can name either computer the A or B.

i. Go to comp A and go to My Computer.
ii. Right click the drive you want to share. We will use C drive. Go Properties then the Sharing tab.
iii. Under 'networking sharing and security', tick both checkboxes and type in a new name for the sharing drive. Here we will call it Cshared. This name will be shown on comp B and other future computers. Wait a moment for it to finish establishing the shared drive.

4. From comp A, Run cmd and type ipconfig in the MS-dos command window. It will show you what is the ethernet adaptor Local Area Connection's ip address. Note that down. Mine was 169.254.182.184. Do not use the wireless ip address here because if you add that ip address in the following steps, you will be sharing your drive over the wireless network in your house(if you had a wireless router)

5. Hop over to your comp B.

i. Right click the My Computer desktop icon and click Map Network drive. If you don't have a desktop icon like me, go windows explorer and do the same thing.
ii. You will see within the Map Network Drive, there is Drive and Folder input boxes. Choose an alphabet you like to represent to shared drive on your comp B. We use S: to stand for shared drive.
iii. In the Folder input. Type \\ followed by ip address of comp A then \ followed by the shared drive name.

For this set-up, it will be \\169.254.182.184\Cshared
Then press Finish.

6. There will now be a new drive in your My Computer. Go check out what you've done! :)
i. If you fail to see it in your My Computer, fret not. Go to My Network Places. It will be there. Hualaaa!

7. If you wish to share in the other direction, simply switch the steps between comp A and B !

Free additional tip:
To split your applications properly, hold CTRL and click on the apps in the bottom taskbar you want to do so, right click and choose!

All these networking and stuff are just the tip of the iceberg in the things i learn in Army and can be used at home. Enjoy !