Hi, is it possible for me to use both my wireless and wireline connections at the same time? I'm primarily online using my wireless PC card for the laptop. But sometimes I want to transfer some big files over to the other laptop I have in the house. Doing this through the wireless card takes ages since I'm also using the internet and the wireless transfer is limited to 54Mbps...in the ideal world

I want to use a network cable and connect between the two laptops using that method. That way it "should" give us almost twice the speed if this is possible.

Can it be done? If so, what do I need to do?

Both laptops are using Windows XP Home Edition.

Thanks.

Im not sure this will solve your problem but why dont you just get a router?
Ive got 2 PC's and 1 wireless Laptop, all got high speed internet and neither slows down in performance when used at the same time. I've got a Belkin ADSL Modem with High Speed Mode Wireless G-Router. You could get them pretty cheap, under £70, probably no more then $100 (look on ebay and you'll get it for half the price )
Hope thats any help. ;/

This post has been edited by linux-penguin: Aug 3 2006, 02:56 PM

Yera router would be the way to go. Plus if you have wireless and (from the sounds of it) multiple comps in the house you likely have one already, so just plug both in and transfer away.

Yep, been using router for a long time already. But I'm mainly on wireless in my house.

I don't think this is possible...using both wireless and wireline, at least not without changing some setting first (if that's even possible). I tried many times already...I plugged the cable in with the wireless turned on. It won't be able to use both. Both say they detect the connection, but when I try to transfer something it's taking a long time. I tested them more and from what I found out, the first device that's connected to it will be the main one it's using. So plugging in the second one seems to be useless.

Any ideas if it's even feasible to do this?

I have some other questions. On my router, I set an beginning and an ending IP address to limit the number of computers connecting to it at once. For some reason one of the laptops I have is set to an IP out of this range, but strangely enough it goes online without any problems. Why is this possible?

If I want to use a crossover cable, what do I need to do on these Windows XP laptops in order to get them to see each other? Aren't they using TCP/IP to do this? I know when I was trying to network between a Windows 98 and XP computer, I had to use NetBEUI. But in this case, I have two XP machines and they won't see each other even when everything else looks ok. These are the same two laptops I'm working on now at my house that DO connect when plugged in to the router. Do I need to assign an IP address to the laptops? My current setup is manual IP addressing in the router...

Thanks.

Umm that sounds very amateurish but I haven't thought of that and never tested it so you go do it. It kinda makes sense in a weird way but I don't think it is going to work so go do it now! and tell us if it works or not cuz it's a pretty good idea even though it has a noobish concept. If it does work go post it but if it doesn't post it anyway so I can double up my internet speed as well.

That's the problem...I don't know how to make the two connections (wireless and wireline) work together. Whichever one was plugged in first, takes full control. Regarding the doubling internet speed, I don't think this is possible. At least not in most of the cases we have...unless you have a really high connection speed. From my understanding, most home users (all?) can not reach such high speeds anyway. Like my connection, it's only a 3Mbps DSL connection. The network cable is 10/100 Cat5e cable (100Mbps) and the wireless card is 54Mbps. So even if anyone can find a way to connect both, the internet speed shouldn't be increased in any way. I'm not interested in that in my case...I just want to have one line for internet (wireless) and one for data transfer in my home network (wireline). Using wireless is just too slow and when I want to transfer huge files over, I have to disconnect my wireless and use the network cable instead to do this.

I still haven't got much time to play around with the crossover cable yet, but if anyone can verify if this can work while I have a wireless connection, that would be great. Otherwise, I'll try to do this when I have more time and report back what happened.

Thanks.

Yes you can, But you have to contact your system administrator. We are using here in the way at the office having Wired & Wireless networks working simultaneously and with a Broadband connection

You can also setup a home network which allows all the computer in your network weither it be wireless or wired every one in your home network will be access your files but any on not in your home network cant even get to them =)

If both of your laptops have a ethernet card then:

1. First connect them with the help of a cross cable .
2. Assign them IP addresses of same class manually.
3. Check the connection by pinging each others IP Address.
4. Make the work group same for both of the laptops.
5. Then switch on file sharing on both of the laptops.
6. Then share the files you want to share.

I think it will work and there should be no problem with wired and wireless access.

It shouldn't be a problem. I do this all the time with my laptop. I use it wirelessly when I surf the internet and use AIM but I use the hardwire connection when I play online games or games over the network. Just make sure your wireless is disconnected when you do so.