How to setup wired AND wireless connection between two computers?

[Lucky]

This is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. I've got two computers, a laptop and a desktop, each independently connected to the net through a linksys wireless router. Due to limitations in my house, I can't use the 4 port switch in the router because it's about 60 feet away.

What I want to do: keep the independent wireless connections as they are between these computers, but when I dock my laptop, use the wired connection between these computers for transferring large amounts of files (using a 100mbps connection, but eventually a gigabit.)

So I bought a crossover cable, thinking that would do the trick, to connect each directly together. But both computers always say although the wired LAN is detected, it has limited or no connectivity. File transfer times show that transfers are going through the wireless, which is 2-3 times slower than wired. I tried plugging each computer into a spare dsl router that has a 4 port switch, and got great transfer speeds.

Both computers are running xp pro, setup through the network setup wizard in an MSHOME network.


How can I achieve my objectives (to get a wired LAN going, and have file transfers go through it instead of the wireless?) Note: I still want to be able to access the net using the wireless cards while I'm transferring)


Complicating the situation, there is a 2nd laptop that I would still like to have capable of accessing the network regardless whether these two computers are talking wirelessly or wired.

 

[Tsaico]

When you connect the two via the crossover, you will need to assign a static IP to both, and they will have to be in the same subnet.

If I understand your post, then both computers are normally connected via a wireless, and every once in a while, you want to transfer files between the two and want to take advantage of the faster connection speed of a wired conection via a cross over.

After you plug in the cross over cable, open your network connections and put in your IP address of say

IP 192.168.1.10
Subnet 255.255.255.0
Gateway- Blank

then on second computer,
IP 192.168.1.11
Subnet 255.255.255.0
Gateway blank

and nothing for DNS for either.

The limited or no connectivity warning should be gone, and you should traffic on the properties screen to confirm traffic is going on between the two. After this, run... cmd and type in "ping <other computer IP>" and you should also get four responses.
Then you can open up the shares and go on!

(depending on how you set up share you might be required to put in password credentials. The ones you use to get into the other computer should be enough)

To be sure that you are not going through wireless, you can disable one or the other's wireless radio, and turn it back on when you are done.

 

[Lucky]

Hmm...that did work, and it automatically forced the transfer through the wired connection. But I'd still *really* like to be able to access the net using the wireless card, on one or both machines, while that is happening. I guess I can just disable the wired LAN when I'm not using it so I can still get net access, but I'd prefer for them to work together if possible.

Thanks! 🙂

 

[Lucky]

I bridged the two connections, and told the bridge I wanted to use the wired connection for LAN transfers. Doing that, I was able to move about 4 gigs in about 13 minutes, signficantly faster than before. Yet still access the net.
Does this sound like the best solution?

 

[JackMDS]

Configure the two Wire NICs connections as a secondary Network.

I.e. if the 1st Network is 192.168.1.1, and 192.168.1.2 the second should be 192.168.2.1 and 192.168.2.2

Bind File sharing to the Wire, and Unbind it from the Wireless.

:sun:

 

[Lucky]

I appreciate the suggestion,but I'd still like to file share wirelessly, both with these computers and a third one. It seems that would not allow me to?

Bridging the connections, as I posted above, seems to help. However, it's only transferring over the wired connection sporadically. When I pull files from the desktop's shared folder to the laptop, it goes over wired. When I push them from desktop to the laptop's shared folder, it goes wireless, even though the settings are the same.

Seems to me there should be a way for this to work - to have a preferred default for a certain connection when file sharing, even if both are present.

 

[nweaver]

use UNC paths with IP's to access shares (i.e. \\192.168.10.11\sharename) to force the wired/non wired file sharing (use either the wired or the nonwired ip address).

You need to have the wired connection on a seperate subnet from the wired, and don't bridge them.

Leaving the default gateway field blank will cause internet traffic to be routed out your wireless (it has the default gateway)

 

[Lucky]

Thanks nweaver. Unfortunately...your suggestion went a little over my head. I understand enough to poke around and put in correct settings most of the time, but I don't understand how to do what you said. Would you or anyone else be able to explain a little more in detail, about how to implement your suggestion?

I understand the concept of what you said, I think.

 

[nweaver]

disconnect the wire

open a command prompt, and type "ipconfig"

post the output, I'll look tomorrow (it's 2AM here, I'm tired)