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upsguy27

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
1,210
19
Utah
i have a windows laptop and a mac laptop. my router only was one ethernet out on it. can i share the internet via a modem cable if i have the ethernet cable plugged into the pc laptop and a modem cable going between the two? or is there another way to do this? how can i share the internet between two computers with only one ethernet cable?
 
The bottom line with your question is I don't know, however if you live in the UK & get your internet from BT their wireless hub you can connect both via Ethernet.

We have my Mac my old PC & my wifes lap top (wireless) connected to it & they all work fine.

If your not in the UK I'm sure you can get the same??
 
Both XP and OS X allow you to share an internet connection. However, they tend to be fairly slow and unreliable, the XP setup is very unstable. You really need to buy a router, they are cheap and simple enough to configure. Technically, a switch won't do it unless your cable modem is capable of acting as a router.
 
Do both have wireless you could run an ethernet cable to one and share the connection through your wireless card. Though this would be a bit of a pain to set up.

If the laptops have wireless connection you can get a wireless router for fairly cheap. It also has wired ports on it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122016

If they don't have wireless or you don't want to spend the money a switch is really cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166006
Plus add a couple of ethernet cables
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812118007

You could save even more money on a wireless router by getting a refurbished one through pricegrabber or checking out ebay for a used one.
 
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