I'm horrible at networking. Do I need a different sort of ethernet cable (I've heard the term patch before) two connect my laptop which runs Win7 to my friend's which runs Vista? We want to play Age of Empires II against each other. Can we do this with a basic cat 5e cable or do we need something special?

I'm assuming you have a router? You just plug both laptops via a standard ethernet cable into the router. Then you can play via LAN. Or if both laptops are connected to the same network wirelessly, you can still play via LAN

I'm horrible at networking. Do I need a different sort of ethernet cable (I've heard the term patch before) two connect my laptop which runs Win7 to my friend's which runs Vista? We want to play Age of Empires II against each other. Can we do this with a basic cat 5e cable or do we need something special?

Easiest would be via crossover cable, direct connection. I've heard that newer network cards don't need crossover cable...?? Not sure about this one.If you have a router, then what Dianna said. Best would be, to make sure everything is running properly:Set both IP addresses in following manner (192.168.0.1...192.168.0.2...)Mask 255.255.255.0Gateway: Router address Most routers if you reset it, and set it to LAN/DHCP-on will assign everything properly as you connect the computers though. Oh and crossover cable is basically patch cable with two lines crossed.

cross cable. And then assign Static IP's to each of the machine's in C class. e.g. 192.168.0.1/24 - 192.168.0.2/24 or 192.168.1.1/24 - 192.168.0.2/24

No router... Is the patch or cross cable called cat 5f? Or where do I find such a thing? edit: Ok, Newegg has a 14ft cat 6 for 5 bucks-ish... is the cat 6 just the standard RJ45? Will this work alright? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119156

No router... Is the patch or cross cable called cat 5f? Or where do I find such a thing? edit: Ok, Newegg has a 14ft cat 6 for 5 bucks-ish... is the cat 6 just the standard RJ45? Will this work alright? http://www.newegg.co...N82E16812119156

I wasn't aware of CAT 5f. The highest is CAT 5e, above it is CAT6 cable (I have CAT6 networked in my house). Did all cabling, connectors and patchbays by hand using network cable tools - very proud of that CAT5e or CAT6 doesn't say it's crossover or not. It's only it's rated speed. CAT6 or CAT5e, you won't see the difference. Only visible if you have a gigabit network and really transfer stuff at those speeds. If you are going gaming, you don't need more than 10mbit... which 5e is going to do with valor. And yes, that cable will do.

No router... Is the patch or cross cable called cat 5f? Or where do I find such a thing? edit: Ok, Newegg has a 14ft cat 6 for 5 bucks-ish... is the cat 6 just the standard RJ45? Will this work alright? http://www.newegg.co...N82E16812119156

They are cat5 & 6 , use the cat5 it would only cost a $ or two.

Difference:CAT5e - 100mbit certified, most can do faster, nearly or full gigabit, depending on network quality, 100Mhz cableCAT6 - Gigabit Network certified, 250Mhz cableCAT6e - 500Mhz, 10Gbit Oh, and before some start kicking me that CAT5 can do GBit, I've had CAT5 cable in my hands that did very poor in my GBit network. Then I replaced it with high grade CAT6 and never a problem since.

You usually don't need cross-over cables for Ethernet thse days as the hardware automatically detects a direct connection and adjusts accordingly. Also I woud not recommend you wire you're own patch cable as it is not an easy task if you are unfamiliar with what you're doing. As for the type of cable, any CAT5 and above will do for a short connection like the 2 meters you are likely to use. Cheers, - jahman.

I thought cat 5e was gigabit certified and cat 6 was gigabit certified with improved shielding? Wow. You really do learn something new every day!

I'm simply looking for some direct connection and hopefully setup won't be too difficult lol! I think I'll order that cat6 stuff. I don't actually have anymore cat5 laying around Thank!

You usually don't need cross-over cables for Ethernet thse days as the hardware automatically detects a direct connection and adjusts accordingly. Also I woud not recommend you wire you're own patch cable as it is not an easy task if you are unfamiliar with what you're doing.

That's what I thought! I knew I heard that somewhere... right on! And yes, you are right about the 2nd one. It was tedious work. But fun nevertheless! Easier to buy for him though. I don't think he was thinking of making his own cable for patching two laptops!

I thought cat 5e was gigabit certified and cat 6 was gigabit certified with improved shielding? Wow. You really do learn something new every day!

CAT6 has better transmission performance. Not only shielding. Those improvements make sure that you have less noise in the cable, thus making it possible for data at those speeds to come clear on the other end, simply put. Higher the frequency, more sensitive is the cable as far as I understand it.

Ahhh. I see. Thanks for the knowledge Word Not Allowed