Connecting two pc's?

[Marvzl1357]

Hullo,

so I've got two desktops around my desk and I'm wondering if it's possible to connect them so I can at least access the second desktop's data through the primary pc? 

Does that make sense? Basically I want the secondary desktop to act as an external hard drive for the primary computer but still have the secondary desktop able to function independently.

I've seen somewhere that you can reverse the pins of an ethernet cable and plug it in and the desktop should show up as a network drive. Is that right?

If someone can link me a tutorial that would be fantastic,

 

Thanks a lot in advance

[Tro]

http://synergy-project.org/

[DIV1D3]

Yeh, you have to do a bit of cable disassembly and re-connection, I'll have a look for a tutorial about it. 

Found the video I saw that had this in it:

Though you can also just buy a crossover ethernet cable which means you don't need to do any tedious cable work. 

[Marvzl1357]

Just plug an ethernet cable and share folders (or the entire drive)...

I think I saw on a wikihow article that you need a special "crossover ethernet cable" or something like that 

 

http://synergy-project.org/

Thanks! that looks cool but now quite what I was looking for. (currently only have one screen and switch between desktops)

 

Yeh, you have to do a bit of cable disassembly and re-connection, I'll have a look for a tutorial about it. 

ok, thanks

edit:Finally found the article that I found previously: http://www.wikihow.com/Connect-Two-Computers-Together-with-an-Ethernet-Cable

[Sharif]

Homegroup? 

[Marvzl1357]

Homegroup? 

riiiiiiight....I've always forgotten about that...

But I was looking for a solution that allowed full access to a second computer's hard drive.

I thought at some point "why the hell can't I just connect the two via usb?" 

[DIV1D3]

I think I saw on a wikihow article that you need a special "crossover ethernet cable" or something like that 

 

Thanks! that looks cool but now quite what I was looking for. (currently only have one screen and switch between desktops)

 

ok, thanks

edit:Finally found the article that I found previously: http://www.wikihow.com/Connect-Two-Computers-Together-with-an-Ethernet-Cable

Aha, well I found the video I was thinking about earlier and I also found out that you can even buy crossover ethernet cables.

[Sharif]

riiiiiiight....I've always forgotten about that...

But I was looking for a solution that allowed full access to a second computer's hard drive.

I thought at some point "why the hell can't I just connect the two via usb?" 

homegroup is quite annoying to use because of all that security reasons 

[Marvzl1357]

Aha, well I found the video I was thinking about earlier and I also found out that you can even buy crossover ethernet cables.

Thanks a lot, I'll go get a crossover ethernet cable then and see how it goes

 

homegroup is quite annoying to use because of all that security reasons 

Well, Homegroup only allowed for a couple pre-designated files to be accessed.

 

On that note though, do you know how much of the secondary hard drive I could access with the ethernet cable?

[DIV1D3]

Thanks a lot, I'll go get a crossover ethernet cable then and see how it goes

 

Well, Homegroup only allowed for a couple pre-designated files to be accessed.

 

On that note though, do you know how much of the secondary hard drive I could access with the ethernet cable?

Awesome, you should be able to access the whole drive while using a crossover cable, though I'm not certain. 

[Speedbird]

riiiiiiight....I've always forgotten about that...

But I was looking for a solution that allowed full access to a second computer's hard drive.

I thought at some point "why the hell can't I just connect the two via usb?" 

Map it as a network drive, then connect it in the other PC. They're both running Windows, right?

[Marvzl1357]

Map it as a network drive, then connect it in the other PC. They're both running Windows, right?

yeah, both installed windows 7 off the same cd

[Speedbird]

yeah, both installed windows 7 off the same cd

Good, because I know how to do this on win7.

 

Go to My Computer, right-click on the hard drive, Share with -> Advanced Sharing. Click Advanced Sharing again, tick "Share this folder", press OK and OK again. On the other PC, click "Map network drive" in My Computer, select a drive letter, and folder should be \\computer\drive (on my PC it would be \\intel-pc\c). Case doesn't matter, they can be lower- or upper-case. When asked for a username and password, enter the Windows logon information on that other PC.

 

Assuming they're both on the same network, you won't have any problems.

[Marvzl1357]

Good, because I know how to do this on win7.

 

Go to My Computer, right-click on the hard drive, Share with -> Advanced Sharing. Click Advanced Sharing again, tick "Share this folder", press OK and OK again. On the other PC, click "Map network drive" in My Computer, select a drive letter, and folder should be \\computer\drive (on my PC it would be \\intel-pc\c). Case doesn't matter, they can be lower- or upper-case. When asked for a username and password, enter the Windows logon information on that other PC.

 

Assuming they're both on the same network, you won't have any problems.

Ok thanks! 

I'll give this a shot once I get home (yay school)

[Speedbird]

Ok thanks! 

I'll give this a shot once I get home (yay school)

You're welcome.