Connected 2 pcs with ethernet cable Why cant they detect each other

I am trying to make a direct hardwire connection between my laptop and my desktop via cat5 ethernet cable but they cannot configure properly.

My laptop sees an unidentified network icon.
I ran network diagnostics and resulted in a
"ethernet doesn't have a valid ip address" message

How can I fix this problem?

FWIW The two pcs are normally connected to a wireless router. I have not disconnected the wireless connection

You have to use a crossover cable, which is wired a bit different. Or you put a device like a router or AP or hub in between.

Cross over leads available here:

Cat 5.e (Ethernet) Cables

you need to be ether running a DHCP server on one of the computers or setup a static ip on each computer. The easy route is to setup a static IP.

You will need to find out the IP of the wireless connection and use a different subnet for your lan cards.

As for a crossover cable you may not need that because most lan cards nowadays have whats called autosense and you can just use normal lan cable.

I don't understand why you are trying to connect the computers in this way, You should just use the lan cable to the router and disconnect the computers from the WiFi.

What is your purpose for connecting the two PCs? Is it to share files between them? If so, the easiest way is to create a homegroup on one of the computers, and then make the other computer a member of the homegroup. You then make each computer's hard drive sharable, and then create a drive mapping on each computer which points to the other computer's hard drive.