Tested on Linux Mint 17 (Ubuntu 14.04 based)

Hardware Requirements:

In order to connect two computers without a router, you will need one of the following:

  • A standard Ethernet cable, which should work with most modern hardware, or

  • An Ethernet crossover cable (for older computers), or

  • A simple Ethernet hub (and two Ethernet cables).

Graphical User Interface Steps:

You will need to manually assign IP address in the same range. The following steps assume you are using the standard Mint/Cinnamon interface. Repeat these steps for each computer.

  • Click the Network indicator on the panel (top right).

  • From the drop-down, select Edit Connections…

  • In the Network Connections dialog box, click the Add button.

  • When prompted to choose a connection type, choose Ethernet, and click the Create… button.

  • Name your connection “ethernet_crossover” or some other meaningful name of your choice.

  • In the Device MAC address drop-down, select (etho) or the one corresponding to the interface you plan to use.

  • Switch to the IPv4 Settings tab.

    • Change the Method to Manual.
    • click the Add button to add an IP address as follows.

Example settings for Computer #1:

  • Address: 10.0.0.5
    The static IP addess you want.

  • Netmask: 255.255.255.0
    You can also use 24 as the netmask.

  • Gateway: (leave empty)

Example settings for Computer #2:

  • Address: 10.0.0.6

  • Netmask: 255.255.255.0

  • Gateway: (leave empty)

Once that’s set up, and the computers are wired together, try pinging each other (make sure the firewall is disabled or that firewall rules have been added).

user@computer1:~$ ping 10.0.0.6

The output should look something like this:

PING 10.0.0.6 (10.0.0.6) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.6: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.457 ms



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