What happens if you plug a Ethernet cable into one pc and the other end into another?

[aidenrelkoff]

so what happens?

[AlwaysFSX]

Nothing until you do something in the OS.

[SkilledRebuilds]

"Connected via Lan", and if their sharing folders, you can see them, if not setup to share at all, nothing happens.

[W-L]

so what happens?

 

Nothing, you need to have a crossover cable that just a specially pinned cable that takes the output data from the pins and puts it into the input pins of the other computer, it'll let you basically have two communicate without using a network.

 

Here's a good explanation if you want to know more:

[aidenrelkoff]

Nothing until you do something in the OS.

lol

[AlwaysFSX]

lol

Well it's true.

[GeekySole9354]

Best explanation, I was just about to post that video.

[Whypatch]

These people are all wrong. The link between computers creates a super computer twice as strong as a regular computer. You may now use this to take over the world. 

 

just kidding please don't hate me

[madcow]

You probably won't need a crossover cable. Modern NICs should auto negotiate.

 

I'm not too familiar with IPv6 but if enabled I believe it will automatically try to configure itself so that the machines can talk to each other.

[Blade of Grass]

Nothing, you need to have a crossover cable that just a specially pinned cable that takes the output data from the pins and puts it into the input pins of the other computer, it'll let you basically have two communicate without using a network.

Here's a good explanation if you want to know more:

Not really, most modern computers have AUTO-MDIX and will detect that two you're connected to another computer, and if neither of the computers have a dhcp server running, Windows will assign themselves a random link local address (in the range of 169.254.0.0-169.254.255.254).

[tract9on]

I always just set the IP addresses and default gateways as one another and that seemed to work . 

Computer 1:
Adapter: 192.168.0.1
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.2

Computer 2:
Adapter: 192.168.0.2
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1

I could then share files between the two etc. As many others have said they may just detect one another, been a while since I tried doing the above.

[thepriceyman]

not much

[LAwLz]

Like Blade of Grass said, if you have a fairly modern computer they will auto negotiate IP addresses and configure themselves to be able to exchange data.
If you got things like network discovery on then you can start transferring files in Explorer. If you got some LAN capable multiplayer game you can start playing that. It's just like connecting two computers to a switch.