[megaaadi]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and an amateur in computing. What i would like to do is share internet (lan) from my desktop pc(running windows 7) with my mac laptop(os X). I have two network cards in my desktop and I have recently purchased a crosswire "cat-5" cable.

So, is there any ideas ?


Appreciate it!

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What kind of Internet connection do you have? If you have a highspeed connection, such as DSL, cable, etc., then instead of connecting the machine together, you might want to consider getting a wireless router to split the incoming connection and so that you would be able to use a wireless connection with the laptop (an adapter might be needed).

Using a router would allow you to use the Internet with either computer and your desktop would not have to be on in order to use your laptop.

If you have a dialup connection, then you could use a SMC7004ABR router with an external modem to share the connection.

If you really want to connect through the desktop, you would need to connect the laptop through the other ethernet port. Then you would have to setup the networking to allow sharing the connection, which hopefully someone else could step in and assist with that as I am not familiar with Windoze7.

[Kemasa]

What kind of Internet connection do you have? If you have a highspeed connection, such as DSL, cable, etc., then instead of connecting the machine together, you might want to consider getting a wireless router to split the incoming connection and so that you would be able to use a wireless connection with the laptop (an adapter might be needed).

Using a router would allow you to use the Internet with either computer and your desktop would not have to be on in order to use your laptop.

If you have a dialup connection, then you could use a SMC7004ABR router with an external modem to share the connection.

If you really want to connect through the desktop, you would need to connect the laptop through the other ethernet port. Then you would have to setup the networking to allow sharing the connection, which hopefully someone else could step in and assist with that as I am not familiar with Windoze7.

[megaaadi]

Thanks for the quick reply

i have high speed dsl. I am in college and have two computers but i can only use one lan socket on the wall. Since I have crossover cable, two nic cards in my desktop, ethernet port in my mac so i was wondering if it could be done without router.

[Kemasa]

If you attach a router to the outlet on the wall, then there is only one lan socket in use on the wall. It would get split after that, at the router, which is basically the same as splitting it using a computer.

If you don't want to buy a router, that is one thing, but honestly that is the best way to do it and routers are cheap. In fact, I would not be surprised if you could get one for free (ie. freecycle, freesharing, reuseit, etc.).

Unfortunately I can not give you details on routing it through the computer as I am not familiar with your version of the OS. If that is really what you want to do, then someone else should be able to explain how to do it.

[megaaadi]

Thanks.

But I am really interested in doing it by using crossover cable. I am pretty sure xp and win 7 are sam in many aspects so if i knew how to do in xp i would have no prob doing it in win 7.

ps. i tried bridging the two nic cards in my desktop. It disrupted my internet service for two days( i know two days!!! i am not sure if this was supposed to happen)

[Kemasa]

I deal mainly with Linux. The issue is that you need to set the default gateway to be the interface with the DSL connection. Otherwise, it does not know where to send the data. Then, for any traffic for the other IP address, which you will need to define, you may need to tell it to go through the other interface. That is why it is easier to do it with a router.

Hopefully, someone with more experience with Windoze will step in and provide the information.

[diabillic]

Your best bet is to use a switch. Your XP machine would need to be on all the time for the Mac to utilize the connection if you try to share.

But if you must, yes use the crossover and set static ips for both, use the same subnet and gateway that your XP machine has now. That should be it.

Edited by diabillic, 26 June 2009 - 11:35 AM.