How to directly connect 2 Windows 11 PC's through a second network card

Question

I have searched and not been able to find specific details of how to accomplish the following. I have 2 PC's that currently each have a single network card that connects to my router, providing their access to the internet and shared folders between all PC's on the home private network. I want to add another network card (either 5GB or 10GB) to each, so they can communicate directly with each other on their own private network via a very short (3 feet or less) ethernet CAT6/CAT6a/Cat7 cable. I am not sure if this needs to be a special cable; I saw an article saying the cable needed to be "crossover" cable. I will be using software from Vienna Symphonic Library called "Vienna Ensemble 7 Pro" which allows me to run a server on PC No 2, where I will run several instances of a piano VST. There are no audio interfaces or MIDI devices required on PC No 2-- the network between the two passes MIDI data from PC No 1 to PC No 2, and audio data from PC No 2 to PC No 1. Software on PC No 1 like Presonus Studio One or Reaper will connect to the server on PC No 2. I need some very detailed instructions of how to set up the new cards on each PC. None of the research related to Vienna Ensemble 7 Pro has helped (I have looked at a number of videos and articles pertaining to it). If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Hello,

The function about connecting 2 Windows 10 devices via network cable and communicating on specific private LAN cannot be accomplished via Windows built-in function/configuration. As you had mentioned, 3^rd party software or tools may be necessary, and you may contact the software or tool supporter/provider and confirm with them about the detailed configurations.

Kind Regards,
Karlie Weng

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