How to connect two old laptops with an Ethernet cable?

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Blackfish
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How to connect two old laptops with an Ethernet cable?

#1 Post by Blackfish »

My two laptops are a Dell Latitude D531/AMD Athlon X2 64 and an old Toshiba Tecra/Intel Centrino Duo. These are 32 bit machines and I am running LxPup-Precise-Retro on them both with 0 issues or complaints.

It occurs to me that I should be able to connect the two of them with this old ethernet cable I have lying here. Is that possible? How can this be done? Is there a tutorial written somewhere I can read to help me get this job done?

I looked under the Network menu and found this EasyPort LAN scanner program. I would imagine this thing has something to do with it, only I don't know how it works.

Help? :D

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don570
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#2 Post by don570 »

If you follow the instructions here you should be able to able to
connect without much trouble.
You install the samba-tng-rcrsn-0.5-rc1.pet on one of the computers -->
the one that you want to be the server. The samba client
software is preinstalled in most puppies.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=60204


You might need to buy a crossover ethernet cable if one of the
computers is 15 years old or older. All modern computers will
use a regular ethernet cable.
_____________________________________________

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rcrsn51
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#3 Post by rcrsn51 »

How are these two machines getting their Internet? Are you using a wifi router? If so, they are already "connected" because they are members of your LAN. You don't need the Ethernet cable.

gcmartin

#4 Post by gcmartin »

Hi @Blackfish
  1. Is the question about the physical connection and what is needed in both PUPs to allow each to see the other across the wire?
    Or
  2. Is the question about what software to use on LxPup-Precise-Retro to share files?
The 2 responses below, separately, are trying to understand which of these you need.

Here to help

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Blackfish
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#5 Post by Blackfish »

rcrsn51 wrote:How are these two machines getting their Internet? Are you using a wifi router? If so, they are already "connected" because they are members of your LAN. You don't need the Ethernet cable.
This is both the problem and the solution.

Where I am working, the wifi router is located in another building. I get a great connection with this Dell almost every time; it rarely drops the connection and has to reconnect. But with the Toshiba, forget it. It simply does not have the power to connect to that router. Thus, I thought of connecting them with my ethernet cable. It would make backing up my files much quicker and easier.

I'm in a village in Thailand. We have a lot of problems here with Internet and ISPs. Here in Don Koi, they need to strengthen the bandwidth for the entire village. Too many on it. Needless to say, they haven't gotten around to doing this yet and it doesn't look hopeful for any time in the near future. So I am stuck with the way things are for now. Circumstances beyond my control. So I must find other ways to make due and get the job done.

Furthermore, on the very rare occasion that both computers are connected to the Internet, I am not sure how to get to one from the other. Never done that before. I am starting my research on that topic later tonight.

Sorry, guys, I am so inept. Too many years using Windows operating systems. Whenever I had a problem with that garbage, I just backed up my files elsewhere, stuck in the CD, wiped everything out and started again with a fresh install. Old habits die hard! I realize I don't need to go through all that crap with Linux. So the possibilities are endless! So it's worth it to me to finally learn something about computers after all these years. But it is slow going sometimes.

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Blackfish
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#6 Post by Blackfish »

gcmartin wrote:Hi @Blackfish
  1. Is the question about the physical connection and what is needed in both PUPs to allow each to see the other across the wire?
    Or
  2. Is the question about what software to use on LxPup-Precise-Retro to share files?
The 2 responses below, separately, are trying to understand which of these you need.

Here to help
I'd like to learn both.

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greengeek
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#7 Post by greengeek »

Do you have a router? How do you connect to the internet? By cable, or some other method?
EDIT - sorry, ignore this, I thought you meant the wifi was only available at your workplace.
Last edited by greengeek on Sun 15 Jun 2014, 20:17, edited 1 time in total.

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mikeb
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#8 Post by mikeb »

ok well in that case the better wifi machine will have wifi and ethernet and the lesser just the ethernet.

To have 2 networks into one machine it must have a different subnet for each.... also normally there would not be dhcp running to allocate ip SO

you need to configure a static ip at least for the ethernet.
The original network wizard has that option.... if the router gives you say 192.168.1.4 then your wired machines need to be given for example 192.168.2.1 and 192.168.2.2 ..the important thing is to use a different number in bold...that represents the subnet.

Once thats done then you should be able to ping each other and use those ip to transfer files using ftp, NFS or samba.

It would also be possible to share the internet from the wifi machine to the non wifi ..firewall has that option.

Thats the basic idea.... and yes I would expect a crossover cable is needed...or straight plus crossover adapter.

mike

gcmartin

#9 Post by gcmartin »

Hello @Blackfish
gcmartin wrote:
  1. Is the question about the physical connection and what is needed in both PUPs to allow each to see the other across the wire?
    Or ...
This will probably address what you ask

Post any additional questions on that thread.

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Blackfish
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#10 Post by Blackfish »

OK, I am in the process of reading up and understanding all of these goodies, but first, I don't think I have the correct cable for this. The one I have is a red cable, about three feet long, and the package it came in says: CATSE UTP PATCH CORD 3 M RED. The colors of the wires inside are black (or dark brown), green, blue, and orange. Is it the right one?

And when you say, "Wizard", you mean the "Internet Connection Wizard" and the goodies therein that help "Connect To Internet Or Intranet"?

gcmartin

#11 Post by gcmartin »

Blackfish wrote:...The one I have is a red cable, about three feet long, and the package it came in says: CATSE UTP PATCH CORD ... Is it the right one?
You have a standard Ethernet cable. It is not a crossover cable.

But, might work if your network motherboards contains a "smart" ethernet adapter. The smart ones can auto-detect cables (including crossovers) and autoconfig appropriately for communications with another LAN device. Plug each end into each PC and look at the lights on each ethernet plug. Do they signal green? This "might" work! (Crossover cables force a specific physical connection and the "smart" component is not used)
Blackfish wrote:And when you say, "Wizard", you mean the "Internet Connection Wizard" and the goodies therein that help "Connect To Internet Or Intranet"?
Yes. This defines the LAN behavior of your cable.

Others watching this thread, might appreciate this video.

Hope this helps
Edit: Clarity.
Last edited by gcmartin on Fri 20 Jun 2014, 05:50, edited 1 time in total.

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neerajkolte
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#12 Post by neerajkolte »

This is a standard Ethernet cable. It is not a crossover cable. But, might work if your network motherboard contains a "smart" ethernet component.
You could also search for cheap adapter which when connected to one end of standard ethernet cable makes it crossover cable.
I don't know how it looks or works, but it was suggested on some other forum.
Try searching online or local store, I heard they come cheap.
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Blackfish
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#13 Post by Blackfish »

I plugged in my cable and there were no lights. I will have to get a different cable, a "crossover cable", to be precise.

Thanks for the help!

jamesbond
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Re: How to connect two old laptops with an Ethernet cable?

#14 Post by jamesbond »

Blackfish wrote:It occurs to me that I should be able to connect the two of them with this old ethernet cable I have lying here. Is that possible? How can this be done? Is there a tutorial written somewhere I can read to help me get this job done?
Once connected, what do you want to do with it? Are you planing just to transfer files occasionally? If yes, Karl Godt explored that before here: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93964, which is a solved problem. Since both machines have wifi, then you can temporarily tell both machines to talk to each other, no cables required.

If you on the other hand you plan to piggyback the other machine for internet (ie internet connection sharing) permanently, yes you need the cable and then you'll need some other package (sorry can't advise more, I've never used that package myself).
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