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Any way to network 2 computers with ONE Wi-Fi card?

O

orangebang

Member
My computer downstairs is using a Linksys Wi-Fi 802.11b card for internet connection. I want to connect another computer without buying another card...is this possible? I have NICs in each one, so is it possible to use a crossover cable, and have both going at once?

 
let me get this straight:

downstairs:
802.11b card -> internet
empty NIC

upstairs:
empty NIC

if that's the case, yes you can just put a crossover cable between then & hook them together (and with most newer OS'es you can also setup internet connection sharing to allow you to get both of them to use the one internet connection).
 
The Wireless Router is upstairs.

The computer with the Wi-Fi card downstairs is running on Win98SE.

I just built another computer with Windows XP, and I'd like to hook that up in the same room as the downstairs 98 machine without buying another Wi-Fi card. Both have empty NICs.

So by what you're saying, I can do this with just a crossover cable?

 


<< The Wireless Router is upstairs.

The computer with the Wi-Fi card downstairs is running on Win98SE.

I just built another computer with Windows XP, and I'd like to hook that up in the same room as the downstairs 98 machine without buying another Wi-Fi card. Both have empty NICs.

So by what you're saying, I can do this with just a crossover cable? >>



yeah. I would reccomend hooking the Windows XP machine up to the wireless NIC though, as it is easier to setup internet connection sharing in XP. Also realize that the machine not directly connected to the router will have some issues with certain (yet few) internet services as it is basically firewalled to incoming traffic.
 


<< problems like accessing email through a browser? Things like that?

I'll give it a try anyways... >>



no, pretty much anything in a browser will work 100% fine. It's more stuff like AIM Direct connect (if the other person is firewalled as well), and you can't host servers on the firewalled machine (which AIM direct connect basically is), but that's about it. I doubt you would ever notice it actually.
 
my main concern is that I would like my Microsoft Outlook on the 98 machine to still work correctly. Besides that, I don't really care.

So to confirm:

take Wi-Fi card and put into the new WinXP machine.

Connect both with a crossover cable.

Do I need to set anything up on the 98 machine?
as in, change the mail server on outlook?
 
You won't be using the wireless router on the win98 machine directly. You will need to setup internet connection sharing which will basically mean the winxp goes through the router to get to the cable/dsl service. The win98 machine goes through internet connection sharing on windows xp, which you will have to setup, which will then go through the router to get to the internet. It's kind of like going through two routers. You shouldn't have to change anything at all in fact. Just setup ICS on winxp and you'll be fine.
 


<< You won't be using the wireless router on the win98 machine directly. You will need to setup internet connection sharing which will basically mean the winxp goes through the router to get to the cable/dsl service. The win98 machine goes through internet connection sharing on windows xp, which you will have to setup, which will then go through the router to get to the internet. It's kind of like going through two routers. You shouldn't have to change anything at all in fact. Just setup ICS on winxp and you'll be fine. >>



you do have to do a little more setup than that because remember the win98 machine will have no access to a DHCP server. This means you get to assign IP#'s, Gateways, Subnet Masks, DNS servers, ect. He is right though as to how it is setup:

Win98 <-cat5-> WinXP <-wireless-> router
 
ICS will allow the xp machine to act as a dhcp server, so you shouldn't have to change anything if the 98 machine is already set up for dhcp.
I would recommend that you always power up the xp machine first before the 98 machine, so it can assign the 98 machine an ip, otherwise
the 98 machine will still have the lease on its old ip and the xp machine may recognize that lease as independent. I believe i'm pretty close
to being correct, but i might be slightly off. Other than that, you shouldn't have to change anything in outlook either on the 98 machine.
Hope this helps.
 
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