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XP Pro on both.

I have a number of large home video files I'd like to copy from my
desktop to my laptop.

I have always understood there's a way just to cable the 2 machines
together to do this, but have never been able to figure out how.

I'm on a wireless router at home - would it work better to get the laptop
on this router also and do it that way? I would still need some specific
directions on how to proceed once I get that done.

Appreciate any info!

yes you can directly cable one to the other (using a cross-over ethernet cable).

the question will be; Is this a one time event, or is it likely that you would share
data between system AND/OR like to share internet access to the same ISP?

Direct cabling needs ISC feature enabled on one system which will for that system's
NIC card to have an address of 192.168.0.1. The other system will need an address
like 192.168.0.x where 1 > X < 255 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255

The above will preempt Internet access unless the same system has a second NIC
connected to a router (you can also WiFi to a router) but that connection would
need to be 192.168.1.1 or anything NOT 0.1

Just infrequently.

On the rest of it, you kind of lost me.

I understand basically what you're saying,
but have NO idea how to make it happen.

Thanks!

you need to purchase a CROSS-over ethernet cable -- about 6ft to reduce the cost.

(A) both systems need a NIC card;

right-clk My Computer ->Manage
then click Device Mgr
scroll to Network Adapters
you'll find it Named and there should be no Yellow/Red mark on it

(B) On one system, you need to setup Internet Connection Sharing

On the other system,

use Control Panel->Network Setup Wizard to activate the NIC

On that same system, View Network Connections, right click on Lan Connection -> Properties
Scroll down to Tcp/Ip and click Properties button on the right.
Click Use the following IP

Ip address 192.168.0.10
Mask 255.255.255.255
Gateway 192.168.0.1

Ignore the DNS, as you will not be using it! Click OK and then OK once more

The systems are now ready so connect the cross-over cable from one to the other
and wait 30 seconds.

Now both system should be able to perform this test

ping 192.168.0.1 ==> giving you timing info
ping 192.168.0.10 ==> more timing info

If either fails, then it's not configured correctly.

Enable Simple File Sharing on BOTH systems.

on the system with the existing photos, find the folder containing the photos
then follow this procedure (P)

On the system attempting to access the photos

dbl-click My Computer
use Tools->Map Network Drive
choose a letter for the remote drive (eg G
and Folder enter \\192.168.0.1\ShareName {the name created using (P) above}

If prompted for a password, use the login password of the account that created the share.

OK - I just took the easy way out and bought one of those small
160g USB 2.0 external drives. Would be hard for even me to
screw that up! ;-)

Thanks for trying anyway!