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I have an RJ45 retractable Zip Linq crossover cable, is this enough to play multiplayer games (such as Starcraft) and send files? If so, how do I connect the computers? 'Cause yesterday I saw things saying they had CAT5 and RJ45, what's this all about? Please help!

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Short answer: yes — that retractable RJ45 crossover will let two PCs talk directly for file transfers and LAN play. was right that a direct cable works, and ’s clarification about terminology is useful: RJ45 (8P8C) is the plug; Cat5/Cat5e/Cat6 are cable categories.

Practical setup (quick, reliable):

  1. Plug the cable into both NICs and watch for the link LED on each card.
  2. Give each PC a static IPv4 address on the same subnet (example): PC A 192.168.2.1 mask 255.255.255.0; PC B 192.168.2.2 mask 255.255.255.0. No gateway needed for direct links.
  3. Verify with ipconfig (or ifconfig) and ping 192.168.2.2.
  4. Turn on file sharing / create a shared folder and set permissions, or use your game’s “direct IP” connect option. If a firewall is active, allow the game and “File and Printer Sharing” or disable the firewall briefly for testing.

Notes and common gotchas:

  • If the NICs don’t show link lights, try a different cable or a small switch/router (use straight cables to a switch). Some newer NICs support Auto-MDI/MDIX so either cable works; older NICs need a true crossover.
  • Ensure both machines run the same game version. If an old game uses legacy protocols (IPX), you may need an emulator/wrapper or the game’s TCP/IP mode.
  • If problems persist: update NIC drivers, check Windows network settings, run ipconfig /all, arp -a, and test with another working machine.

This gives a safe, repeatable path from “plug in the cable” to actually seeing the other computer in the game or file browser.

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Member Avatar for TheNNS

Yeah, cross over is good enough for games and transfering files. Just connect each end to a different computer and setup a netwokr in my network places. It should be as simble as that. If you plan to play startcraft, make sure both computers have the latest patch, which is v.14 to play over tcp/ip, or install ipx drivers on them. If you don't know how to do that, just let me know. Cat5 and rj45 are two different types of networking cables. I think cat5 is like coaxial cable, but i may be wrong.

Member Avatar for The Geeky Kid

thank you so much, i started getting so scared, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Member Avatar for John A

Cat5 and rj45 are two different types of networking cables.

Wrong. 8P8C, or more commonly known as RJ45 is a type of connector, which is a little wider than a telephone end, is used on CAT5 cables. (As you can see from the article, there is some confusion about RJ45 itself, but 8P8C's generally referred to as RJ45.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RJ-45

CAT5 is the cable, which is unshielded twisted-pair, and can currently run at speeds up to 1000 MB/s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

This may also help:

Member Avatar for TheNNS

Wrong. 8P8C, or more commonly known as RJ45 is a type of connector, which is a little wider than a telephone end, is used on CAT5 cables. (As you can see from the article, there is some confusion about RJ45 itself, but 8P8C's generally referred to as RJ45.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RJ-45

CAT5 is the cable, which is unshielded twisted-pair, and can currently run at speeds up to 1000 MB/s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

This may also help:

You know that's not the point of this post . Stop posting unhelpful things here. It doesn't make a difference if he knows the difference cat5 and the other one, that won't matter when he's playing starcraft against his friend or whatever.

Member Avatar for John A

I have an RJ45 retractable Zip Linq crossover cable, is this enough to play multiplayer games (such as Starcraft) and send files? If so, how do I connect the computers? 'Cause yesterday I saw things saying they had CAT5 and RJ45, what's this all about? Please help!

You know that's not the point of this post .

Oh really. If you read carefully, he asked the difference between CAT5 and RJ45.

Stop posting unhelpful things here.

And you stop posting incorrect things here.

For setting up a connection:
1. Connect the 2 computers with the cable.
2. Check out this guide for the Windows setup:

Member Avatar for TheNNS

Just SHUT UP!!!

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