Connecting 2 computers

[B.J.]

I want to network my computer and my son's computer so that we can play the occasional multiplayer game. My computer is connected to the internet through our wireless router, but his is not (by design - he's 9 and doesn't need to be on the internet without supervision). Does anyone know the best way to go about this?

Would an ethernet crossover cable work in this case? There's nothing else plugged into the ports (my wireless is through a USB attachment). If so, can I just connect the cable directly between the two computers, or is there anything else that would need to be done?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Alpha_Geek]

The router should have additional ports, use a standard cable, not crossover and connect to the router.

Or, if cabling isn't your thing, get a USB wifi adapter for the second PC.

 

[Ward Fowler]

What Alpha_Geek is suggesting will work. Or, if you don't want the his computer connected to the internet even while your playing a game, then a crossover cable would indeed work. You would use it connect both computers through their network ports.

 

[B.J.]

Right, I guess I didn't make it clear that I didn't want his computer connected to the internet at all, just to my computer.

 

[Brent]

You can disable internet on his computer through the routers configuration controls. So you can have his computer hooked up to the router, but still have Internet disabled for his IP. This way he will be on your "Intranet" network, but not on the "Internet". What is your router model/version?

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Setting static IPs with no gateway address will also allow LAN connectivity without gaining internet access.

 

[B.J.]

Brent: I'm not at home right now, but I'm pretty sure I have the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router. I do have MAC address filtering on, but I wasn't aware you could confine a computer to the local intranet. At least, I hope that's an option on mine.

Alpha Geek: I may be an engineer, but you're speaking Greek to me. It's a miracle I managed to get the network set up in the first place.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Not Greek, GEEK! LOL

If you do the following when you get home and post results, I'll go into more detail.

Go to the PC that currently has internet access.
Start Button, Run.
In the popup, type CMD and hit enter.
You'll see a good old DOS prompt!

Type IPCONFIG and hit enter

You'll see the machines IP address on the LAN, as well as the netmask and gateway.

The address and gateway should start with 192.168, or maybe 10.0.
If they do, let me know and I'll tell ya the next steps. If not then you've got an unusual configuration and perhaps not best to put in ublic domain as it could be a live internet address.

 

[Brent]

Brent: I'm not at home right now, but I'm pretty sure I have the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router. I do have MAC address filtering on, but I wasn't aware you could confine a computer to the local intranet. At least, I hope that's an option on mine.

Alpha Geek: I may be an engineer, but you're speaking Greek to me. It's a miracle I managed to get the network set up in the first place.

This is real easy to do, first, click this link to see a screenshot of my router configuration menu, yours should look similar to mine - http://brentjustice.shackspace.com/router.jpg

Notice how I'm under the "Access Restrictions" page, yours should have a similar page.

The first thing you need to do is hook up all the computers to the router, so it can get an IP adddress. Then go to the computer you want to block, and see what IP it has assigned to it, write it down. Then go to your routers config menu (192.168.1.1) in your browser. Now go to Access Restrictions. In here, set a Policy Name, hit Enabled, and then hit Edit List to apply it to a specific PC. In here, under IP Address section and (01) field, put in the IP address of the computer to block. Then click on Deny Internet Access during selected days and hours, and by default Everyday should be selected. This just hit Save Settings at the bottom, now his computer should not be able to access the Internet, while at the same time being connected and visible on the network.

 

[farmkid]

^In addition to what he said, you might want to assign a static IP address to your son's computer. Otherwise, the next time it's turned on, your router might assign a different IP address to it and then your filtering would be undone. I'm not familiar with your particular router, so I can't tell you where to do it, but ever router I've used has the ability to assign static IP addresses to specific MAC addresses, so I assume yours does as well.

 

[B.J.]

Thanks for the help, guys! I went ahead and installed a wireless USB adapter on his computer and set the filtering up so it can't see the internet. Seems to have worked okay.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Congrats! Your IT Geek secret decoder ring is in the mail!

 

[Brent]

Thanks for the help, guys! I went ahead and installed a wireless USB adapter on his computer and set the filtering up so it can't see the internet. Seems to have worked okay.

Glad you got it working! I was worried my explanations weren't detailed enough, I know those kinda things can get confusing. I haven't actually done it before myself, but knew that the functionality for it is built into the Linksys/Cisco routers.