please help me with my networking problem

[aftab_darogar]

Hi can anybody tell me how i can connect my computer with my laptop without getting any hub or anything like that?
on my pc i m running win XP and it has a pci ethernet card qhm 100r3s my laptop is a compaq presario v5000 with win xp when ever i connect the lan cable both the puters say cable unplugged but in the devive manager shows device is working perfectly! and yes i used the home networking wizard
i have tried changing cables but it dosnt help someone suggested a cross lan wire even that didnt help
i have a mercury 810 motherborad on my pc and the lan cards specifications are
standards: IEEE 802 3u 100 base-tx/IEEE 802.3 10base-t
bus type: pci specification revision 2.1, 2.2
interface:rj-45 phone type jack
network mode supported:100base-tx, 10base-t

[tomohd]

check the ip of the both the computers