2 person LAN question

[Tjrawl]

I'm trying to get some old strategy games working so i can play them with my brother. He's highly autistic, and as a result he has a real fear of the internet. I was hoping to play some games with him over LAN, so we could avoid connecting him to the internet. If there's only two of us is it possible to just run an Ethernet cable between our computers or will we need a switch, even for only the two of us. If we need a switch would it be possible to use an old router (we have some lying around at home)

Sorry for the basic question, networking isn't really my wheelhouse

Cheers

[emosun]

1 minute ago, Tjrawl said:

is it possible to just run an Ethernet cable between our computers or will we need a switch, even for only the two of us. If we need a switch would it be possible to use an old router

you need a switch of some form and can use an old one

[AbydosOne]

15 minutes ago, Tjrawl said:

is it possible to just run an Ethernet cable between our computers or will we need a switch

It's possible in either way, but you'll need to set the IPs of each computer manually.

 

15 minutes ago, Tjrawl said:

If we need a switch would it be possible to use an old router (we have some lying around at home)

This is probably the better option, as it will assign an IP automatically to each computer, so you won't need to fiddle with that.

[Senzelian]

There is no need for a switch in that case.

Simply connect both PCs with each other with a network cable and assign a private IP address to each one.
Private IP addresses start with 192 or 172 or 10.

Example:
PC1: 10.0.0.1
PC2: 10.0.0.2
Subnetmask for both of them: 255.255.255.0

To test the connection open the CLI and typ in "ping 10.0.0.2" from PC1 or "ping 10.0.0.1" from PC 2.
 

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

It's possible in either way, but you'll need to set the IPs of each computer manually.

 

This is probably the better option, as it will assign an IP automatically to each computer, so you won't need to fiddle with that.

AFAIK modern Windows should auto-configure a private network between themselves automagically, although static may be easier as you will know what IP addresses are being used without having to look.

[Needfuldoer]

You can also set a static address on his machine with it connected to your regular network, and not set a default gateway.

 

LAN services will work, but it won't be able to reach out to the Internet.