connecting a laptop to desktop PC

Hi, not done this myself, but this should work...it certainly should xp to xp anyway, so you may have to do a bit of fiddling to get it going in vista.

first, you need a crossover network cable - a standard patch lead will not work.

turn off both computers

connect the cable between the two

turn both computers on and login to windows

make both computers a part of the same workgroup (in xp - my computer > properties > computer name, in vista it will be somewhere in the network and sharing centre)...you will probably need to restart at least the pc that you have changed the workgroup of

once restarted go into my network places (on the xp pc) > view workgroup computers and see if you can see the vista machine. do the same on the vista pc (again its somewhere in the network and sharing centre). if you can't see them try restarting both machines again.

share the drives or folders on both machines that you want to exchange data between (you need to select the allow users to change my files box so you have read / write access)

you should now be able to browse each of the computers via my network places / network and sharing centre and drag-and-drop files and folders between them.


apologies for my lack of clarity on the vista front - i'm trying my best to avoid it for as long as possible!!

hope you get it sorted.