i want to network 2 home pc's one running XP and 1 running Vista is this possible.?

Answer 1

If you want to share internet, get a wireless router; instead of a modem. These are very easy to set up.

Also, get a couple of USB wireless network dongles. When you run the setup software for these, your wireless network ( the router ) will be detected & you will be asked if you wish to connect to it. Agree & that's it.

Both machines will now be able to connect to the internet & will also be on the same network as each other.

---------

Once it is set up, you will be able to run the command ' IPCONFIG ' on each ,machine & this will give you your IP addresses.

If machine 1 had an IP of 192.168.1.1 ( for example ) - on machine 2 you could type in \\192.168.1.1 . This would then give you a view on machine 2 of all the resources you have shared on machine 1.

To share a folder, or printer, just right click & select sharing.
For network games, just aim at the machine's IPs you found following the above method.

-------------------------------------------------------

If you don't want to share internet through a router, still get a couple of wireless USB dongles. You'll see when you install them that you can CREATE a wireless network.

Follow the steps to create a network from one machine & then using the wizard on trhe 2nd machine, follow the steps to join the network you created on the other machine.

------------

You could also use the crossover cable approach, but, you would then have to manually create IP addresses.

--------

Hope this helps, good luck :0)

Answer 2

yes it is; no problem with XP, Vista, Win 2000, Win ME and Win 98; cannot have more than 4 if you have Win ME, Win 98.

If you want to share an Internet connection, get a router and assign LAN IP addresses via DHCP

If not, and you have only 2 devices to network us a cat5 cross cable and assign static LAN IP addresses to each pc in same subnet; I suggest 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3 for IP addresses; subnet mask 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.2. These will change if you get a router later.