Networking question

[stooge007]

I'm going to a friends house tonight after a christmas dance, and heonly has one phone line. I'm taking my computer, so here is what i am wondering:
I have a parallel port cable to run from 1 computer to another computer (to transfer files) ok, say i would connect to the internet, and we had the cable connecting both computers, could he also access the internet by getting the info from my computer? and if so how?
Also, we LOVE to play starcraft, would that cable work for us to play head to head? if so, what would i have install?
Thanks
LMK,
Josh

[Axel]

I seriously doubt that will work -

You will have much more luck connecting the two computers with a network card installed in each computer and a mini-hub between the two.

You can get workable 10BaseT network cards for about $20 each - A 10BaseT minihub will run you about $45 if you go on the cheap -

Then you have to set those two up and bind protocols, etc. etc.

As far as sharing a modem socket connection through a network - it might be possible, but I haven't done it - why do both of you have to be connected at the same time - What do you want to do?

If you are going to network game a bunch - I recommend getting dual 10/100BaseT network cards for your PC and an auto-sensing 10/100 baseT mini hub - My current favorite is the Netgear DS104 model 4 port minihub with uplink 10/100 BaseT capable - You can get them on the net for about $65 if you shop around, or in stores for about $75.

[Axel]

Oh yeah - I forgot - you can network the two computers together with nothing but a network card in each computer and a "cross-over" cable between the two - this cable crosses the connections for send receive eliminating the need for a hub between the two computers. - but you're limited to two computers....

[psyklone]

first of all be sure that the parallel cable that you have is made for establishing a direct cable connection. a standard 1-to-1 pin out on a parallel cable won't work. and as for sharing an internet connection between systems that are connected via parallel ports, that is possible (and easy to do) ... the trickiest part is getting the direct cable connection to work in the first place.

once you've got the systems to where they are able to share files via the direct connection, you'll need to add an additional 'dialup adapter' in the network properties of the system that is going to have the internet connection. once you've done that you'll probably have a 'dialup adapter' and 'dialup adapter #2' in your list of installed networking components. go into the properties of the dialup adapter that you've added and give it an ip address ... an address of 192.168.1.1 will work fine ... and give it a 24 bit mask (255.255.255.0). that will take care of that system, now on to the secondary system. go into the properties of the already existing dialup adapter (if there isn't one, then add it) and set the ip address to 192.168.1.2 and mask to 255.255.255.0 and you're pretty much done. the only thing left to do is install a proxy program on the host machine, the one that actually has the internet connection. i like analogx's proxy program, it's very small and works like a charm. www.analogx.com (http://www.analogx.com)

cheers!