how do i connect 2 computers in my home?

ive got the lead (looks like a phone line cable only smaller)

but not sure what to do in the connection manager.................

please help !!you will need a crossover cable to connect the to pcs together or you can get a regular CAT 5 cable and a switch and you can connect that way also If you plug in a regular network cable between two computers, they will not "talk" because the send and receive wires do not make a complete circuit with the Ethernet ports.  They will be send/send and receive/receive.    A "crossover" cable "flips" the send and receive so that it will be send/receive and send/receive at each end - a complete circuit.

You may also get a ROUTER or switch, and plug in two conventional Ethernet cables (the router or switch takes care of the sending and receiving.  A cable needs to run between each computer and the hardware.Generally, most NIC cards (Network Interface Card, redundantly) these days are 'smart', in that they know whether it's connected directly to a router / switch / hub or a computer (the reason you needed a crossover cable). I am under the impression that most network cards these days don't need crossover cables to plug directly into another computer, but I may be mistaken. I'm pretty sure that only one of the computers need that CAPABILITY for them to be able to 'talk'.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable under 'automatic crossover').

Beyond that, what operating system are you USING? Windows, I assume? To what end are you looking to network these computers (internet sharing / file swapping / gaming, etc)? I've had mixed success at getting two computers to talk with each other; it seems to either be RELATIVELY easy, or maddeningly difficult with not much in-between.Just tripped over this, too. Only skimmed it, but it'll be a lot more help than I really could be. 

http://jamus.co.nz/techthought/2009/07/18/crossover-networking/

Happy networking!  thank you for all your post's, great info seems a bit easier now!


Greenhorn ......... excellent link very detailed. Thank you