Networking for Bakas

[Chocofreak13]

guys, i'm at the end of my rope. i've searched the net, microsoft is no help, and my brother has no clue either.

i recently bought a reverse networking cable, and i was under the assumption that it would be easy enough to plug in and connect after a few mouse clicks. that was my first mistake, as nothing with my computers is ever easy.
after trying and failing to connect speedy (7 ultimate) to TYSONSKITTENS (xp home, it's a loaner computer from mel), i attempted to connect speedy to chise (7 home premium). this has proved equally as frusterating, and i can't contact microsoft for help since i can't find the proper id numbers or some shit like that. even their guides have been fruitless, referring to terms that don't show up where they're supposed to.

if anyone could provide help in the simplest language possible (i never took the networking class), i'd be eternally grateful, given that i need speedy to be up and running now that i have craploads to do.

[Nichi]

Doing some research of my own, this article should help you figure it out

[NejinOniwa]

It's usually hard as fuck with cables unless you have a router at hand (or a hax multislot mobo like DELTA has). Simply put - it's not normally possible to pop one end of a LAN cable into one box and the other into another, and have a network. You need a central node, and for that you either need a computer that can double as center node, or a midpoint physical - a router.

My advice - climb down the stairs, plug in cables into your router (make sure ports are right) and voila. Like wireless network, but LAN speeds and stability.

Otherwise, i'm afraid you'll have to use the wireless.

[Chocofreak13]

i ended up returning the cable, and buying a new receiver. but thanks for the advice, it'll come in handy when i'm preparing my computers to run together.

[Red-Machine]

I made myself a crossover cable at college.  You just plug both ends into each machine, making sure the user account on the machine you want to access has a password (Vista and 7 are picky about this) and then share the folder you want access to.  Then you can access it via "Network" on the start menu.

[Chocofreak13]

then i almost had it. oh well.