▷ How to connect two network computers with windows

If we have several computers in our house and all of them are connected to a router or switch to connect to the Internet, it would be a very good idea to connect connecting them in a network to be able to share files. In this new step by step we are going to connect two networked computers or more than two, valid for different Windows operating systems.

Index of contents

Connecting computers in res is very useful to share folders and files directly from our computers without using removable storage devices.

Define the type of connection network and activate sharing

The most important thing of all is to have the equipment connected. In principle, the type of network to which the equipment is connected, public or private, is irrelevant, so we must have the options active to allow the use of shared files.

• We go to the beginning and write " Control Panel " and we access it. Then click on " Networks and Internet " and within this window in " Network and shared resources center "

Next, we click on the option “ Change advanced sharing settings ” and activate the corresponding options to allow file sharing on the networks that we have defined.

If we have a laptop with the public type network, we advise turning it into a private network when we are at home, in this way we avoid having these options activated for when we connect to public networks outside.

Preparations and settings

To connect two computers in a network and that they can be seen correctly, whatever the Windows operating system, we need to make several configurations beforehand.

In the case of Windows 10 it is possible to share files without using homegroup, since this has been removed in the latest versions of the system. But it is not unnecessary to define this to use other operating systems.

Team Name and Workgroup

The first thing we recommend to do in this case is to define a name for our team and assign them to a working group that we want.

Initially our teams receive a default name like DESKTOP- . It is a little intuitive identification if what we want is to see which computer is connected to the network.

We already have a tutorial where we teach how to change the name of the team and also the workgroup, since both parameters are exactly in the same place.

To see it visit the following link:

This procedure is valid for all versions of Windows so you will have no problem doing so.

In our case we have not defined a different workgroup than the one that Windows has by default (WORKGROUP), since this is perfectly valid and this is the case in all versions of Windows as well.

Connect two computers on a network

Check communication

Now we must verify that there is a connection between them. For this, the first thing we must do is know what the IP address of each computer is. This will be useful later to connect to each computer on the network.

We go to start and write "cmd" and open our command console on all computers. To know each IP we will write the following command:

Ipconfig

We look at the section "Ethernet Ethernet Adapter" and within this in "IPv4 Address" this will be the IP that interests us.

Now let's check that there is a connection. In the same command window we write

Ping

For example, we want to see from Windows 7 if we can see Windows 10, then it would be: ping 192.168.2.101

If there is a connection, it will show us the response of the other node and the time it takes to respond

See connected equipment

If there is a connection between the computers, there should be no problem with their visibility. To see the connected equipment, we go to the file explorer and enter the " Network " section. If we press " F5 " we update the state of the folder and the computers should appear.

• If they do not appear directly, we must go to the address bar and write the following:

  \\

For example "\\ 192.168.2.101" This way we will access directly even if the equipment is not visible on the network.

• The first thing you will ask us for is the user credentials and password to access the other computer on the network.

If our team does not have a user password, it will give us an error when accessing it.

Delete authentication on network equipment

To avoid asking us for a username and password when accessing a network drive, we will have to go to the settings shown in the first section, within " Network and Sharing Center " and choose the option " Disable shared use with protection by password ”

This way you will not ask us again for the credentials to access

I can't see networked computers in Windows 10

With the modifications that Microsoft has made in your Windows 10 system, deleting the Home group, it is very possible that we will experience problems to graphically see the connected computers in the “ Network ” folder. What's more, since the last updates this functionality fails a lot, sometimes we will see them and other times it will be impossible.

But we should not worry, because the teams are still perfectly connected. To try to fix this we propose the following solutions.

Activate Windows features to make computers visible (not highly recommended)

For computers to be visible on the network in Windows 10 operating systems, it will be necessary to activate a series of features that allow the visibility of this to be activated.

• We open the start menu and write " enable or disable features "

• We will have to locate two of them from the list, which are marked in the following image

• To activate them, select the box on the left and click " OK ". We will have to restart the computer to establish the changes.

This procedure we will have to do on all computers that have Windows 10

For Windows 7 systems backwards it is not necessary to do this last section. What's more, you may not be able to see computers in other versions of Windows now.

Create direct access to network equipment (best method)

If we continue without seeing the computers in our network we will have a very simple solution, create a direct access to each one of them.

• The first thing we must do is collect the IP addresses of each one of them, for this we use the command " ipconfig " seen in the previous sections. Remember, we must look at the " IPv4 address ". Now in the place where we want, we right-click and choose the option " New " and then " Direct access "

• In the text box we will have to put the network path of the equipment, for example " \\ 192.168.2.103 ", it will put your IP address.

• Then we put a name for the direct access, normally it is the name of the computer connected on the network.

In this way, every time we want to access one of the computers, we will do it directly from this direct access without having to wait for them to be visible.

How to share a folder on the network

Now, the only thing left to do is share the folders we want across the network. To do this visit our tutorial:

In this way we will be able to connect two computers in a network or all the ones we have

As we can see, Windows makes it very easy to network several computers.

You may also be interested in these articles:

How do you transfer files from one computer to another? If it is not via network, try it, you will see how you will like it.