How to Share Files between Two Computers Using LAN Cable.
Wi-Fi has grown significantly over the years, but sharing huge files, or for that matter, an entire disk, is still inefficient. You get limited speed and your data goes through a public channel. I would prefer to share a disk or transfer data over a LAN cable any day. Therefore, below is a step-by-step guide to transfer files between PCs using an Ethernet cable.
Just in case, if the file you want to transfer is small and the systems are on the same network, consider doing it over Wi-Fi. Here are some programs you can use to transfer data over Wi-Fi.
When to use a LAN cable
Disconnecting the Ethernet cable simplifies operation due to the faster data transfer rate. The cheapest CAT5e cable supports speeds up to 1000 Mbps. To give you some perspective, USB 2.0 supports speeds up to 480Mbps. Thus, data transmission over Ethernet should be the obvious choice.
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The advantage of a LAN cable over others
The main advantage of using an Ethernet cable is faster data transfer rates, at least faster than conventional flash drives and Wi-Fi. If you have a lot of data to transfer, an Ethernet cable is the best choice. We tested this on all major Windows versions. that is, on Windows 7, 8 and 10.
Things You Need
- Obviously two Windows computers
- LAN cable, CAT 5 will do.
- A little time and patience (if this is your first time)
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Share files between two computers using a LAN cable
Step 1.Connect both computers with a LAN cable
Connect both computers to the LAN cable. You can use any network cable (crossover or Ethernet cable); on a modern computer it doesn’t matter. Because they both use the same port and have very few functional differences.
Step 2. Turn on network sharing on both computers
Now that you have physically connected both computers using a LAN cable, we need to enable network sharing on both computers in order to exchange files between them. This is a simple step-by-step process. Make sure you do this on both PC.
To enable sharing, go to the Start menu and search for Control Panel. Once you see it, click on it to open it.
When the Control Panel window opens, click on “Network and Internet”.
In the next dialog box, open the Network and Sharing Center. Alternatively, you can also type “Control Panel Network and Internet Network and Sharing Center” in the search box of Control Panel and press Enter. This will redirect you from Control Panel to Network and Sharing Center.
On the left side of the Network and Sharing Center window, click Change advanced sharing settings.
Here you will find three networks – public, private and whole network. The public network is for places like airports and coffee shops, the private network is for the organization or your home network, and the entire network is made up of both. To ensure a flawless setup, we recommend that you select All Networks.
Then expand All Networks by clicking the drop-down icon. Here we need to enable sharing so that computers can access files from each other over the LAN cable. To avoid additional settings, just turn off password protected sharing.
In this way, you give another computer access to shared data without providing any credentials. This is not a good security practice because since you are sharing your data with people you trust, you can make this one-time exception. When you’re done with file sharing, make sure you’ve turned on password protected sharing.
Then click “Save Changes”. As I said at the beginning, repeat the same steps for another PC.
Step 3. Configure a static IP address
Now that you’ve enabled network sharing on both computers, it’s time to connect both computers to the same network. We will do this by setting a static IP address of the same class. As in the previous step, you need to do this on both PCs. Next steps.
1. To set up a static IP address, open Control Panel, go to the “Network and Internet” section and click “Network Sharing Center”. Alternatively, you can also right-click the Start menu and select Network Connections.
2. In the next window, you will see the active connections, which should be Ethernet, since both computers are connected with a physical LAN cable. Click the Ethernet link. A new dialog box will open, here click the Properties button.
3. In the next pop-up window, select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4)”. Now click on Properties. This will open another dialog box.
4. Here you need to configure two computers with different IP settings.
On Computer 1, select the Use the following IP address option. and enter the following values
- IP address: 192.168.1.1
- Subnet mask: 225.225.225.0
- Default gateway: 192.168.1.2
Of course, you don’t have to use these IP addresses. You can use any class A or B IP address. If you’re not sure what this all means, it’s best to stick with this example.
On the second computer, follow the same steps, but change the IP address and default gateway
- IP address: 192.168.1.2
- Subnet mask: 225.225.225.0
- Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
We keep the subnet mask the same and change the IP address.
Then open Windows Explorer and click the Networking tab on the left side of the window.
If you configured everything correctly, both computers should appear in this network window on both computers. Now you can simply click the other computer’s icon and view the file. But wait, you still need to tweak the last setting.
Step 4. Share the folder
Assuming you connected the cable correctly, enabled sharing options, and configured IP addresses. Now it’s time to send files from one computer to another. To do this, you first need to grant access to the target folder on the local network. I recommend, you can create a new folder on your desktop and copy and paste all the files you want to move to another computer in that folder.
Then select the folder you want to share and right click on it. On the shortcut menu, go to “Grant Access” and select “Specific People”.
3. In the File Sharing window, select Everyone from the drop-down menu. Click the Add button next to it and finally click the Share button.
After you’ve shared it, the next window will show the folder’s network location.
This is it. Just go back to the other computer from which you want to access the file, open the Networks panel and click the name of the other computer.
Here you will see the folder you just shared. From there, just open the folder and transfer files and folders as usual. that is, by copying and pasting. Similarly, you can repeat the same steps on another computer.
Final Words
If you have any questions, I suggest you watch this video tutorial. The same process was described visually.
This method will only work between Windows PCs. For Mac or Linux, you need to use another file sharing agent like Samba. If you have additional questions, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer them.
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