How to give internet to two computers from one ethernet port without a router

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You asked about an ethernet port for 2 computers (and even linked a wired only device), and now all of a sudden you are talking about wifi. Which is it?
No you cant turn a wired connection into wireless without a router (or router setup as access point).

To turn one ethernet port into many you need an ethernet switch.
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Gigabit-Ethernet-Plastic-TL-SG1005D/dp/B000N99BBC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1494346391&sr=8-9&keywords=gigabit+ethernet+switch+5+port

To turn a wired conenction into wireless you need a...
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One of your two computers needs to have two networking connections. If you have one machine with Ethernet and WiFi and a second machine with only WiFi, then you would connect the cable to the first machine and then create an AdHoc WiFi network between the two machines and then, assuming Windows, you would create a shared internet connection between the Ethernet and WiFi on the first machine. This is called Internet Connection Sharing or ICS, which should help you search for it.

If you have two Ethernet ports on the first machine and one Ethernet port on the second machine, then you can also do this but you do need an extra piece of equipment: a crossover Ethernet cable. This kind of cable reverses some of the wires inside so that two PC Ethernet ports can talk to each other (under normal cables, PC Ethernet ports can only talk to Router/Switch/Hub Ethernet ports). If you can't find a crossover cable then you can also use two normal cables if you plug them both into an Ethernet switch or hub (hubs are typically slower). You'll also notice that almost all routers have Ethernet ports since they contain a switch; a switch itself is cheaper than a router but not as cheap as a cable, obviously.

If your first machine has Ethernet + WiFi and your second machine has Ethernet only then you can't make these work. You'd need to add a WiFi connection to the second machine or add an Ethernet connection to the first machine and that means a USB dongle (for laptops or desktops) or possibly a PCI/PCI-Express card for desktops.

If both machines have only one connection then you get to choose one to add a connection to.

Also worth mentioning that if you do this it means that for the second machine to have any access you also need the first machine to be on. And ICS isn't unique to Windows -- you can do the same thing in Linux and OS X it's just called something different.

For your idea about an "Ethernet splitter" - this can't work. To understand how they work you first need to know that an Ethernet cable is typically connected to an 8 wire cable but it only uses 4 pins (wires). This means you can, in principle, run two connections down the one cable. You need to recognize that the other end of the Ethernet port you're seeing goes to some router/switch somewhere in the building and it goes into one port on that switch, not two. Hence your port is only capable of connecting one device even though there are extra wires there, in the wall shared within that cable, for a second one. *IF* you had control of the back end, then you could use two Ethernet splitters to merge two Ethernet ports onto that one cable and then split the port that you see into two and both would work. That would be because the one port has two connections into the switch. I'm also saying this like I know for sure that they don't do that, but in reality it's just overwhelmingly likely that they don't do that because if you do that then you need twice as many routers/switches which is a silly expense when hardly anyone would ever try to do that and therefore you'd always have under 50% utilization.

Really, if you can find a switch for a good price that's your best bet. The thing is you said "hostel" which makes me think Europe and I'm well aware of how European tech stores work and the prices you're likely seeing (though maybe it's just what I got used to in Switzerland). Odds are a switch is either impossible to find because routers are so popular or that it's almost as expensive as a router to start with.
 
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You asked about an ethernet port for 2 computers (and even linked a wired only device), and now all of a sudden you are talking about wifi. Which is it?
No you cant turn a wired connection into wireless without a router (or router setup as access point).

To turn one ethernet port into many you need an ethernet switch.
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Gigabit-Ethernet-Plastic-TL-SG1005D/dp/B000N99BBC/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1494346391&sr=8-9&keywords=gigabit+ethernet+switch+5+port

To turn a wired conenction into wireless you need a router or access point.
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-3-In-1-Wireless-Router-RT-N12/dp/B00DWFPDNO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494346440&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+rt-n12
If you want others in hostel to have access to your files/printers/streaming devices then put in access point mode, if you want to block this then leave in router mode
 
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Solution


Thanks for your help. All i meant was that my laptop does not support microsoft hotspot... and yes you can give internet to two and ten computers (from one pc only) if you can turn the one pc into wifi hotspot.
 
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If you in any way value any sort of reliability/performance then dont bother with the ICS/bridged wifi route.
ICS was designed back in the dial up days and just modified for broadband. It has really poor performance and that is assuming the host computer is even half decent specs, if it is a low end computer it will be even worse.
You are talking $15-25 for a switch or router that is designed to do the job, vs having an unreliable slow performance headach of the ICS setup, not to mention you cant take computer A with you without taking away computer Bs internet connection. And you will have to revert some settings to hook computer A back up to a normal wifi connection as well.
 
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Do i need a router as well to connect to the internet? Because switches are only for LAN
 
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You can use a switch to connect both computers to wired LAN, you wont have any wireless from a switch. Your initial thread only talked about wired solution, not wireless thus why a switch was recommended

If you want to hook up to wireless from that one ethernet wall port then hands down the easiest, best performing option is to just get an inexpensive router. This will also provide with security from the rest of the people in our hostel, without a router their infected computer could easily infect yours.

ADDED:
Assuming that somwehre in your Hostel is a router, then a swith will allow you to connect both computers to the network via wired connection. A switch will not allow you to split the 1 IP/Connection from your internet provider without having a router.
 
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yes i will use the switch to connect the two computers with cat5 cables. I didn't mention wireless. My question is that if the two computers will have internet access if i connect the ethernet port on the wall directly with the switch without a router. Because the switch recommends to have a router connected to the internet and then connect the switch with the computers.
 
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As I know, We can share an Internet Connection with the help of following method.

1. Sharing a Windows Computer's Connection
2. Turning a Windows Computer into a Wireless Hotspot
3. Sharing a Mac Computer's Connection

I am also looking for more information about the networking and I will get the beneficial info from enter-sys.com.
 
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If the hostel provides internet to more then just your room then it has to have a router.

In regards to security you will want good up to date antivirus on the computers, but having a router between your PCs is what makes it much more secure. A router isolates your computers from the hostel by hiding your computer's IP addresses and ignoring any unsolicited requests that an infected computer could make. If your Hosted configured things properly then the firewall in their router will already prevent this communication but this is certainly something you cant just assume is done right.
 
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if i connect to that port directly with my Ethernet and turn on network discovery, i can see other computers on the network. I can just see those PCs but i have my own bandwidth in the room. Does it mean i need a router?
 
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yep, it works seems like the ethernet port on the wall is a Lan port coming from a router. But how can this port connect to wan and Lan ports? I mean you can connect a router as well on that.
 
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If you connect it to the LAN ports of your router it is being used as a switch the traffic never passes though the router chip. You need to be careful to disable the DHCP and change the lan ip if you do that so you do not cause issues for other people on the network. If you connect it to the WAN then you are pretending the ethernet port in the wall is a actually ISP connection and it runs the same as if you lived in a separate house
 
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