Yes, but not like you would like it to work:

1) You will not get 100Mbps, you will probably not get more than a few hundred kbps of true throughput, limited by the upstream bandwidth on the cable modem.

2) While you are sharing a broadcast media and you can snoop what other people are requesting from the internet, you should not be able to see other pc's directly.

I would setup a pc with a ftp directory and setup a login for your friend, forward TCP ports 20 and 21 on your router to forward to that pc. From the other end just point an FTP client to the outside IP of the router/gateway and you should get a login prompt.

Since you can "put" or "get" with FTP you only need to setup one pc to exchange files either direction.

Not as pretty as network neighborhood, but it will get the job done. This also works if you were on different ISP's too.

hi,
Thanks for the reply.
1)You said that i would be getting speeds in some hundred kbps, is this speed going to be the same as i get while downloading on the internet, or in other words does my internet bandwidth(which is 128 kbps) limit my transfer speed???.
2)Can I perform transfers with my friends on the same gateway at LAN speeds?? I cant see any of the other computers on my gateway, it says you have no access to other computers on the LAN.Does this mean that i cannot perform transfers with them???

Your pc will run at either 10 or 100 Mbps between it and whatever it is plugged into (hub, switch, router/gateway, or cable modem)

If there is a hub, switch, or router/gateway, that device will run 10 or 100 Mbps to the cable modem (or DSL "modem")

Your cable modem downloads a configuration file from your cable provider when it boots. This file tells the cable modem it's upstream and downstream limits (eg 256 kbps upstream, 3000 kbps downstream) This is why your speed is limited BEFORE your transmition leaves your house.

Even if you could download from your neighbors pc at 3000 kbps (3 meg) your neighbor would have a simular upstream limit that you have. Either way the upstream limit is the highest possible transmition speed you could hit.

Thus, even if you were only transfering information one door down, you would be limited to a few hundred kbps.

Now more importantly, do you have line of site and an old PrimeSTAR dish? :p

*** I am posting information that can be referenced as DOCSIS compliant specifications, THIS IS NOT 1337 HACKER STUFF, please do not remove this post.

Don't worry. We know it's not 1337 hacker stuff. In fact, it's quite interesting stuff!

Ok, i got the data transfer going successfully , by using the DC++ s/w. But as usual there is a problem . The problem is the SPEED!!. When the download/upload starts, that moment the speed is around 100 kBytes/sec.Then it goes on decreasing steadily till it goes down to some 10-50 Bytes/sec . Then after sometime the speed raises and stabalizes at a meagre 50KBytes/sec for some 5 mins. Then again goes down and again rises. While all this happens i noted that the n/w icon in my systray goes on and off (i mean i lose packets). Using the same s/w my friends in other town get a whooping 1-10MBps!!!!......What should i do to get such orgasmic speed!!!