Connecting a Laptop to use my Desktops broadband connection?.

#1 bluesjunior

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 03:47 AM

I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 Home Premium as the OS connected to the Internet via a cable modem from my Virgin Media ISP. My son would like to be able to acquire internet access to his Windows Vista OS laptop when visiting. Given that although I am not completely PC illiterate I am by no means an expert although probably better than most pensioners. Could someone either explain in a simple manner or point me to a tutorial or such on how I can achieve this and what I would need in the way of cables, extra equipment etc. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3, CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 450 Processor, Memory: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz,Graphics: PowerColor HD 5750 1GB GDDR5,
PSU: Corsair 430W CX PSU 4x SATA 1x PCI-E, Hard Drive:Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache.

#2 joggiwagga

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 08:33 AM

I could be wrong, but my understanding of distributing a connection from one line to several computers takes a router, and from there either connect the laptop via wireless or use more cat5 cable to hook the various computers in.

#3 ThunderZ

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 09:50 AM

You actually have a couple different options.

Did a little checking and Win 7 does have ICS = Internet Connection Sharing.
Using ICS requires a cat5 or above cable and that your PC be turned on for this to work. As well as some configuring of your, the Host, PC.
MS ICS information.

Or a simple network switch and cat5 or above cable would work as well.
This does not need your PC to be turned on in order for your Son to have internet access.
While this method dose involve a minimal $$ investment for the switch and cable it would be my preference for the method used.
Basically plug-n-play.

This post has been edited by ThunderZ: 25 April 2011 - 09:52 AM