I'm running two PCs, a desktop and a laptop with Windows 8 Release Preview ("Build 8400").

They are connected to the same router in infrastructure mode, thereby having wireless internet. Due to often file synchronization between the machines I want to establish a cable connection that allows direct file transfer, without needing to use the wireless. When I plug in the cable (normal, not cross-over), I see in "Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections": "Ethernet - unidentified Network" on both PCs. Transferring a file between both still only uses the WiFi via the Router.

I noticed that when turning off the wifi on one PC, I can set up a shared internet connection that will work via Ethernet-cable, but since sometimes only one PC runs, sometimes the other one, I do not want to have the internet of one machine to be dependent on the other one being switched on.

I do not have a crossover-cable, but since I did connect the PCs already successfully (just without both being on the internet), I'm sure that this should also work with a normal ethernet cable.