NetSetMan Support

JohnoPolo

Member

Registered: 2013-11-06

Posts: 1

I just want to connect a PC to a Laptop - Both on Windows 7

Yep, it's that simple. But, after having used Windows for 25 years, I am still unable to get this to happen most of the time. So, can I use this software to do that supposedly simple task? I've read the help and watched the video and searched the forums ....

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: I just want to connect a PC to a Laptop - Both on Windows 7

Well, NetSetMan assists you by automating your manual configuration routines. It doesn't actually tell you which settings to use when. So like in your case NetSetMan won't help you finding out the correct IP settings for your constellation.

Here are some personal suggestions from me:

1. Make sure you have the right hardware setup: To directly connect two systems you need to either use a "crossover ethernet cable" or you need to have at least one of the two network adapters to be compatible for direct connections (the reason is that within the cable there are wires for sending and receiving data which would collide otherwise). Or you need to use a switch or router in between.

2. Make sure your IP settings are correct. It's not like there's only "the one correct setup", but it has to follow some rules of course. I'm sure there are plenty of tutorials on that topic available if you search for that. Here's just one idea:
   PC1: IP 192.160.0.10, subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
   PC2: IP 192.160.0.11, subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
   After that both systems can communicate. But it still depends on what you're planing to do with it (share files, play games, provide Internet from one system to the other, ...)
   If you connect both through a router and want to have Internet as well, you need to use the router's IP address range instead (could be 192.160.0.x or 192.160.1.x or 192.160.2.x or ...) which you need to find out yourself. As the gateway and DNS you most likely need to enter the router's IP address so it can manage your external traffic.

There are a lot of different conbinations that I cannot describe it all here. But maybe that gives you some starting point. I encourage you to do a web search for this topic to find some basic tutorials that illustrate the whole process more detailed than I can do here.