I prefer to do it without cables.... Less fuss.. Plus you don't have to hunt down a specific cable with my method - you can buy ethernet cables everywhere!
A cross-over cable
is an ethernet cable (the proper name is RJ45, for the cables and the plugs/sockets). And presumably you have an RJ45 that connects your PC to your router (unless it's a 802.11 or similar radio system). And you can usually buy a cross-over cable anywhere you can buy a "normal" RJ45 cable. They look identical.
The NonRouter: TerryRussell
I have a crossover cable, but I have absolutely no idea how to assign a fixed IP address...
Any chance you could give me a step by step method?
Also, would this mess up any wireless connections?
No you won't mess up the wireless connections if you do it correctly. The wireless and cable adapters have separate lives under Windows.
It's fairly easy. This is the description for XP in Classic view for control panel. Vista will be similar and the non-classic view will be similar, but the icons in Control Panel will be grouped differently.
You need to get to the network connections for your LAN adapater (not the wireless one). In classic view, go to
Control Panel => Network Connections => Local Area Connection. That will bring up a dialog box. Under the
General tab, click
Properties. Another dialog box will come up. Under its
General tab, you will see a list of protocols. One of them in the list will be
Internet Protocol TCP/IP. Double click on that.
Click "
Use the following P address" and enter 192.168.1.1 for the first PC (it doesn't really matter which) and 192.168.1.2 on the other. Under the
Subnet mask, enter 255.255.255.0. The
Default Gateway doesn't really matter but set it to 192.168.1.1 on both PCs.
The DNS setting also is irrelevant but again, enter 192.168.1.1 in the
Preferred DNS server for both machines. Leave
Alternate DNS server empty.
Click OK several thousand times (OK, I exagerate!), and then plug in the cable. Probably best to restart both machines but that may not be necessary.