Can I make an ad-hoc WIRED network?

Question

A guest is staying with me for the next three days. He brought his computer, but it does not have a wireless card. We (apt complex) have a wireless network. Is it possible to get him to connect to the net through one of our wireless-endowed laptops?

As this is apartment-complex-wide wireless, I don't have access to a router to just plug him in that way. Sadly.

Answer 1

If both your laptops have Ethernet Jacks on them you will need to connect your laptops together via a Cross-Over Cat5 Cable.

Then you need to enable Internet Connection Sharing. To do this in Windows XP you will need to go to:

Start > Settings > Network Connections (right click)
Hold down the Ctrl button and select your Wireless Connection, then your Wired Connection.
Right click and select add to bridge.

Now right click on your wireless connection and select properties.

Go to the advanced tab and select: "Allow other network users to connect through this computers Internet connection."

Now all your friend has to do is make sure his IP on his wired ethernet card is on the same network as yours, and he has to set his Gateway address to the address of your computer.... not your router.

Presto your done... Sorry tried to make it as simple as possible

Answer 2

you could wire your two laptops together, but inorder to have your guest connect to the internet you must bridge your wired and wireless network adapters in the laptop connected to the wirless router. to do this you would need software such as wingate.