Connecting the plug with a network cable to a laptop directly

[manishm]

Is is possible to connect the plug to a laptop using ethernet cable directly without any router.
My laptop is running ubuntu 9.04. I have dhcp server running on the laptop.

[mabuhay]

Hello

You need a crossover ethernet cable or a crossover adapter. DHCP is not necessary, you can also just set the IP-address manually.
Maybe a crossover cable is not even necessary. Take a look at this wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable#Automatic_crossover
Just try it out, you will not break anything 

mfg

[fragfutter]

no crossover needed. i have not seen any gigabit interface that does not implement auto mdix. I', not sure but imho its part of the gigabit standard