Can the LAN wire be used to connect to computers without anything else in between?

By without anything, i mean no hubs, routers or anything else. Also if the answer is no, how do i connect 2 computers at my home?

Can the LAN wire be used to connect to computers without anything else in between?norton internet security 2008

This can be done if you use what is called a Crossover cable. What you're calling a LAN line has a technical term of ''Cat5''. That is short for Category 5 Cable. Cat5 cable has 4 pairs of wires (That makes 8 wires). Cat5 cable is not only used for computers and was designed with the idea of expanding and multipurpose. Computers and LAN equipment (Ethernet) use wires 1, 2, 3, and 6. The rest of the wires are unused. Wires 1 and 2 are for transmitting data and wires 3 and 6 are for receiving data.

When you connect two computers with a regular Cat5 cable (Which is what most stores sell), you are connecting the transmit on one computer to the transmit on another computer. A Cat5 Crossover cable takes the transmits on one of the cable and reverses them on the other end of the cable so that the transmits are now receives and the receives are now transmits. This allows two-way communication.

After you have the two way communication set up you can do basic communication. Netbios is a good example or if you know enough of IP you can set the two up to communicate by setting the IP of one to 192.168.1.1, subnet 255.255.255.0, Gateway 192.168.1.2 and the IP of the other one to 192.168.1.2, subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway to 192.168.1.1. It all depends on what you're trying to do from there. Most games will be able to communicate from there if you're trying to play that type of game.