Connecting directly to another computer

[phandentium]

A friend and I want to play a multiplayer game together. However he does not have internet access therefore he cannot play with me.

However, we have a LAN cable and we tried to hook each other up to play via LAN. I went to the Network Connection control panel and tried to create a new connection. I pressed "Set up an advanced connection." I was going to click "Connect directly to another computer" but the option does not work. How do I fix this?

 

[peterhuang913]

You need a crossover cable, not an ordinary lan cable.

 

[phandentium]

That wouldn't be the problem considering that his computer has that option workable yet mine does not.

 

[npettit]

That wouldn't be the problem considering that his computer has that option workable yet mine does not.

in order for a computer to talk with another computer you have to have a crossover cable.... if you connect a straight through between the two you will have to include a switch.... the above statement makes no sense to me

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

As already stated, all you need to do is get a cross over adaptor, and plug in the cable... Windows should handle EVERYTHING else (it its stock form), and all that would have to be done is launch the game and go to multiplayer.

 

[phandentium]

Let me rephrase this. Even if I use a crossover cable I can not connect to the other computer because I can not click on the option for connecting directly to another computer.

 

[murdocsvan]

have you even tried a crossover cable? it might not appear because windows cant detect another computer correctly SIMPLY because your using a standard cable.

also you might find that under XP, your ethernet card is listed under networks, so you could try connecting the cable, and then simply connecting to a network by selecting the ethernet port your using.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Can you try to elaborate on what button that you cannot click on to directly connect?? Is this for sharing files, is it something INSIDE of the game?? If you have your computer hooked up to WIRED internet, then there is already a network connection present, you don't need to create a new one...

do this......
Connect the 2 PC's with the crossover cable, then on EACH PC, open a command window, and type "IPCONFIG" to get the computer's IP address. Then try to ping the other computers address. Since it is a direct connection, it will likely be an address in the 169.254.xxx.xxx range, since there is no DHCP server. If this works, then the computers are already connected. Few older games require that you enable routing of IPX protocols on your PC... The ONLY one that comes to mind for me now is Starcraft for LAN games.