As we mentioned, in network mode, the computers will be linked in a small network, and the connection will work as the same as a network. This mode allows you to share the Internet connection, if it is available on one of the computers.

After installing the cable as described before, you should check if the cable is correctly installed as a network adapter on Device Manager (right click My Computer, Properties, Hardware, Device Manager). It should be listed under “Network adapters.” See Figure 8. (Our cable is listed as “Hi-Speed USB-USB Network Adapter,” but your cable can use a slightly different name, depending on the manufacturer.)

Figure 8: USB-USB cable correctly installed using network mode.

The next step is to configure both computers to use the USB cable as a network adapter.

First, you have to configure the computer that has access to the Internet. On this computer, open Network Connections (Start, Settings, Network Connections). There you will see the network adapters located on your computer. In our case, “Local Area Connection” was the network adapter that connected our PC to the Internet (to our broadband router) and “Local Area Connection 2” was the USB-USB cable. See Figure 9.

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Figure 9: Network connections.