Why can't I use my Cat5e crossover cable to transfer files between two computers at high speeds?

I bought a 2m Belkin Cat5e crossover cable as a solution to transferring large amounts of files between my desktop PC and my Dell Latitude D530 as quickly as possible. Both are running Windows 7, but I've had no luck setting them up so far. The computers seem to recognise the cable well enough straight away, but it shows as an unknown Local Area Connection with "no internet access".

Based on at least 10 different sources on the net, this is what I've been following to try and get it to work:

1. Set the IP address of the first computer to 192.168.0.1, and that of the second computer to 192.168.0.2
2. Set the subnet masks of both computers to 255.255.255.0
3. Leave the Default Gateway field blank so Windows assigns it automatically
4. Make sure both computers have different names but are on the same workgroup

Doing all of this resulted in a connection between the two machines, even if I still wasn't able to disable the authentication when connecting to one computer from the other. I then tried transferring my files, and it gave me a rate of 11MB/s, a lot slower than the 100MB/s I bought the cable for.

Going back to the drawing board, I found a few sources that mentioned manually entering DNS options instead of allowing W7 to assign them automatically. These sites said to set the default gateway of each computer to be the same as the IP address of the other computer. So, so far:

Computer 1:

• IP Address: 192.168.0.1
• Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
• Default Gateway: 192.168.0.2

Computer 2:

• IP Address: 192.168.0.2
• Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
• Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1

After doing this, almost instantly Windows 7 recognised the previously-unknown network and gave me the option to consider it Home or Public. I made it a Home network on both computers, and then tried to transfer again, hoping this would have solved the issue. This time, however, I got a speed of 1MB/s.

So, here I am, exasperated and kinda lost. From what I read before I bought the crossover cable, I got the impression it would be a quick and relatively painless way to transfer my files between the two machines, but it's turning out to be a lot more involved, to say the least. It doesn't help that networking isn't really my thing, either. So, I'd really appreciate some help in figuring out what I'm doing wrong and exactly how I can get the 100MB/s+ speeds that crossover cables are advertised at.

Thanks!

1 Answer

Since the connection is working, it appears the link speed is not properly getting negotiated. Manually set the link speed to 100Mbps in the properties of each adapter.