How do I setup a Lan between two notebooks with a single ethernet cable?

Question

I want to connect two Acer notebooks with a single ethernet cable between them for lan gaming.

Connecting them to a router or a switch is not an option due to distance. I found a couple of tutorials by searching for it, but all of them depended on the already extinct Workgoup function on Windows, thus I can't confidently follow the tutorial.

So I would appreciate any help with this, because it doesn't seem as simple as plug the cables in the notebooks.

Answer 1

1. Connect the two laptops directly together using a single Ethernet cable
2. Run ipconfig in Command Prompt on each laptop and see what APIPA address (i.e. 169.254.x.x) they each assign themselves
3. Try to ping laptop A from laptop B and vice versa, just to confirm that the laptops are communicating with each other

What about crossover cables?

• Most modern network cards have auto MDI-X support, which allows two devices to be directly connected to each other (i.e. without an intermediate router or switch), all without the need for a special crossover cable.
• If you see APIPA addresses on the laptops after connecting them, then you know that at least one of their network cards has MDI-X support and no crossover cable is required (which is most likely the case).

What about static IP addresses?

• There is no need to assign static IP addresses. You can do anything from browsing file shares between the laptops, using their hostnames instead of IPs (e.g. \\laptop1\share) to playing games. Games will detect the other computer on the LAN automatically, so you wouldn't even need to know the actual IP addresses the laptops had assigned themselves.
• APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) allows the laptops to assign themselves IP addresses in the absence of a DHCP server. With no configuration whatsoever and within seconds of the network cable being connected to the second laptop, both laptops will randomly choose an IP address.
• An advantage to not manually assigning IP addresses is that you will not need to undo anything later on. As the laptops will continue to be in DHCP (as opposed to static) mode while using APIPA, they will immediately revert to acting as regular DHCP clients whenever they are next plugged into a router. You don't need to change any network settings, either before or afterwards.

Try it and let us know how it goes!