atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking Networking desktop PC with a netbook?

I'm helping a friend get set up with her new life and she's trying to make use of what she has to get by as economically as she can.

She has a netbook that she got from Verizon Wireless and uses it in lieu of paying for cable or DSL Internet access. She has asked me if there's any way that she can establish a connection to the Internet through her netbook and network it with her desktop PC. My first answer was YES, but then I thought that I should double-check here first.

I figured a simple peer-peer connection with a crossover cable would be easiest, but I'd need some adult supervision to make that happen if possible. A step up would (and should) be to use a small switch to allow her to include her printer. I think I know what I'm talking about, but I'm not too proud to admit to my shortcomings.

Am I chasing my tail here or is this a viable option? I would really appreciate any help in making me look like I know what I'm doing (if you know what I mean). Keep in mind that I'm an old-school telephone man, so I'd probably need to do this setup over the phone. I'll return the favor or pay for any support you all can provide.

Ed,
Been a while since I've done this, but here goes:
From your description, I'm assuming the netbook has both a wireless antennae and a NIC, and that the wireless has DHCP enabled for the Verizon wireless application. If these cases are true, set the network card (not the wireless) to a fixed IP address (10.0.0.1 will work), then set the NIC in her desktop to an IP in the same range (10.0.0.2). If you have to specify a subnet, 255.255.255.0. I always try to make sure both PC's are in the same workgroup. This should enable you to use a simple crossover cable. Any problems, give a holler and I'll PM you my cell number. Any, yes, I think I know what you mean!
Bill

I think you will need to look at internet Connection Sharing under help in Windows.

This may require 2 NICS on the Netbook
I don't think just being on the same network will allow sharing without a router, but it's been a long time since I set up a deal like this.

Ed

I recently set up something similar for my son

I used internet connection sharing In this case internet reaches the server via USB then goes out on the NIC

what ports are available on the netbook ?

Theres also another solution which is pretty cool and that is to turn the laptop into a wireless router that uses the built in wireless to function as a router and share the internet access. If it has Windows 7 then theres some free open source software here that will do the trick. https://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/ With Windows XP you can setup the wireless adapter in AD-Hoc mode and enable ICS to get pretty much the same result. I dont know how well it will work with Verizon's Access Manager software.

Heres a couple of good explanations of Ad-Hoc mode for anyone interested.

https://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1451421

https://searchwarp.com/swa25148.htm

Skip, the netbook has a wireless NIC, USB ports and a wired NIC. She'd like to establish the Internet connection via the netbook and use it as a server. It would then connect to the desktop PC via a cable of some type. At least that is how I envision doing this. She's not very computer savvy and I'm not too far behind her.

Follow up: After reviewing the above information, it seems to be fairly straight-forward. My only question would be whether I need to use a standard patch cable between the desktop PC and the netbook or would it need to be a crossover cable?

Crossover cable. As a general rule like devices use crossover and dissimilar devices use straight through. pc to pc crossover switch to switch crossover pc to switch straight through. Keep in mind that some devices do have AutoX and it wouldnt matter if you used straight through or crossover as either will work.

I thought so, but I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll be sure to report back to let everyone know how things went. It looks pretty easy to me (so far).