How to connect two computers or laptops wirelessly

Posted on December 7, 2007 at 4:42 pm

Make sure to read other posts from the Wireless Tips series!

  1. How to connect two computers or laptops wirelessly
  2. How to wirelessly access USB devices using a network USB hub
  3. How to disable service set identifier (SSID) broadcasting on your wireless router
  4. How to troubleshoot your Windows XP wireless network connection problems
  5. Wireless Tips – Does your wireless router keep disconnecting or dropping the connection?

Need to quickly connect up to your friends laptop wirelessly while you’re at school so you can download his entire MP3 and movie collection? Unless you’re on the same network and in the same workgroup or domain, it’s practically impossible to share data between two computers without some technical knowledge.

However, if you have a laptop or computer that has a wireless card and so does your buddy, you can use them to make a wireless connection between the two laptops. Once they are connected wirelessly (also called a peer-to-peer ad-hoc wireless network), you can easily share data between the computers.

You can create an ad-hoc network in Windows itself, however, it’s a real pain in the butt and still not very easy to share data even after the two computers are connected. That’s where you can download a freeware application that will help you setup a wireless peer-to-peer network between two computers with any need for a router, access point or the Internet!

WiPeer not only supports directly file sharing between computers, but also playing multi-player games, chatting, and collaboration between programs.

wipeer

Here’s two examples of how you could use WiPeer as described on the web site:

- You are visiting your friends and would like to transfer photos of a shared trip from your laptop to theirs. Wouldn’t it be great if you could share your files with them directly from one computer to the other?

- You are sitting in a boring lecture. You and your friends all have laptops, but your university has not installed an access point in the lecture room. Wouldn’t it be great if you could play a game of Chess or Reversi against them, or even gossip with them about yesterday’s football match?

Here are a couple of the major features of this nifty little application:

  • Ad-Hoc social networks – WiPeer is also like an IM application, whereby you can create your own profiles and send chat requests from the program itself. You can also see who else is online if they are running WiPeer in proxmity.
  • Interactive Multiplayer Games – This program is cool! It comes with games built into it like chess, Chinese checkers, Reversi, and Connect 4!
  • File Sharing & File Searching – You can share files or complete folders with others using WiPeer. You can also search files that are shared out by other WiPeer users, but does not show private files.
  • Create Ad-Hoc networks – This is obviously the best feature of WiPeer! You can create a connection between two computers without any reliance on routers, access points, or any other third party infrastructure. They can be formed anywhere, like on trains, buses, airplanes, etc.

It’s a good idea to keep the program on your USB stick also just in case you run into a friend that you would like to share data with, but they don’t have WiPeer installed on their computer. It’s a tiny program (only 4MB) and doesn’t take up very many resources at all!

Overall, a great program that should have been created a long time ago! Works wonderfully and saves a TON of hassle! Enjoy!

[tags]connect two computer wirelessly, ad hoc network, wipeer, connect to laptops wirelessly, share data between two computers[/tags]

» Filed Under Free Software Downloads

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Comments

6 Responses to “How to connect two computers or laptops wirelessly”

  1. Raj said on : December 8th, 2007 at 5:21 am

    Nice write up Aseem and Helful too :)


  2. Brian said on : December 19th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    Aseem,

    I’m a new lurker of your blog over the last couple weeks and I must say you present some of the coolest and most useful information I’ve seen in my 14 years on the web! Thanks so much.


  3. keith said on : April 10th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    dear aseem i have read some of your blogs and would like to know if u would be able to help me with my network problems if soo please post a reply and ty again. =)


  4. daniel said on : August 1st, 2008 at 10:05 am

    Hi, I just downloaded wipeer, haven`t tried yet, I wonder if it will help sharing my internet connection from my desktop to my laptop


  5. Ruzanna said on : January 1st, 2009 at 10:11 am

    thanks for so useful information!!! it helps a lot ;-)


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