If you’re looking to connect two windows 7 computers or laptops for file sharing purposes, you’re at right place. This post describes steps to connect 2 Windows 7 PCs with a LAN Cable (RJ-45) without a router.
Of course you can easily connect different (or same) versions of windows with help of a router. But it’s not ideal to transfer large files. It’ll take lot more time than transferring files directly with a LAN cable. Other option is with a USB flash drive. It’s also not ideal for larger files. So the best solution is connecting computers directly with a LAN cable. This method tested & found working on 2 Win7 PCs. And it’s also checked using Win7 & Xp, Unfortunately it didn’t work. Here’s the workaround for Win7.
Configure Sharing Options on Win7
Most of the time, these settings come pre-configured with Win7 installation. In case you think yours not, you can tweak it by following below steps. Or you can just skip to next section.
Enable Sharing.. (Repeat for both PCs)
Go to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center.
And on the right sidebar, click ‘Change Advanced Sharing settings’
New window will open. Make changers as follows,
- Tick ‘Turn on Network Discovery’
- Tick ‘Turn on Files & Printer sharing’
- Tick ‘Turn on sharing so anyone with a network access can read & write files in the public folders’
Leave others as it is & click Save changers. Windows may ask you to restart. Do it if asked & continue to next section after reboot.
Connect 2 PCs with LAN Cable & Assign IP address
After reboot, connect 2 PCs with a LAN (RJ-45) Cable. Now we need to assign different IP address to both PCs. I’m going to call PC A & PC B to our two computers in this process.
On PC A, Do the following,
Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center.
Under ‘view your active networks’ you’ll find network called ‘Unverified Public Network’. Right next to it (Left side) you’ll see link to ‘Local Area Connection’. Click it & popup window will open, Now click the ‘Properties’ button at the end of it & another popup window called ‘Local Area Connection Properties’ will open, see below image.
On ‘Local Area Connection Properties’ popup window, Scroll down to ‘Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4)’. Click on it once & then click ‘Properties’. Now a new window ‘Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4) Properties’ will open. On that window tick ‘Use the following IP address’ & set IP addresses as follows,
IP Address – 192.168.1.2
Subnet mask – Leave default
Default Gateway – 192.168.1.3
Now click OK & close all windows. That’s if for PC A.
On PC B, Do the same,
Now on the PC B, you need to do basically the same thing did to PC A. But with a one change. Which is IP address. When you setting IP addresses on PC B use the following instead of what we used in PC A
IP Address – 192.168.1.3
Subnet mask – Leave default
Default Gateway – 192.168.1.2
Click OK & close all other windows. That’s it. Now your windows 7 PCs are successfully configured to share files.
Now you’re one step away from sharing files, You need a Public folder inside each or at least one PC to be able to share files. You can do this by right clicking on any folder on a PC, then clicking ‘Share With’ from the drop down menu & clicking ‘Everyone’. Now anything inside that public folder will be available in other PC as well (Under My Computer > Network)
