I've never owned more than one PC at a time and I've never had to set up a network between two. I'm going to buy a laptop or a netbook soon and I was wondering if I can just connect it to my desktop with an ethernet cable and transfer files and such between them. Is it that simple or do I have to do something more involved?
How-To Geek Forums » Windows XP
Embarassingly basic LAN question
(13 posts)
What you have in mind will not work. What I suggest (if you only want to transfer files), that you copy those to a USB stick, SD card or external disk on one system, and then read them into the other system. But you cannot just string an ethernet cable from one system to another - maybe as a laundry line though - lol.
@whs: Actully you can just run an Ethernet from one computer to another computer. I've done it before.
@All:
The only trick to it is you need to use a crossover cable instead of a normal ethernet cable.
You can get a 3ft crossover cable for about $9 from Newegg. See http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6812119153
Probably about the same at other computer stores too.
Hey, Antman, will the new system have Vista on it? It has a built-in Windows Easy Transfer tool that will not only migrate files from XP, but also settings such as IE favorites, e-mail contacts, and such. It can transfer files over a network, such as an ethernet crossover cable, write the files to an external hard drive, or to optical media. DVD-R discs are fairly cheap, so even if it takes 6 or 8 to do the job, that's not so bad. Notice that they will also sell you a USB transfer cable, but it has not other uses that I'm aware of and is still a cable that you would have to buy.
http://www.microsoft.com/windo.....nsfer.aspx
@Antman
Would it be possible for you to do the transfer at school? I don't know anything about your school or major, but I was a computer science major and if I ever needed a computer part for a short period of time, I would just borrow it from the CS lab. Also, if you knew anyone with the resources and willingness to help, you could change one of your current cables to a crossover and (assuming the person doing it was skilled at it) you would only loose a couple inches off the cable.
@all
Just an interesting note, I recently transferred date between two Vista machines and I am 95% sure that it was just a standard ethernet cable.
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