I am far from a computer wiz! So....
Short of setting up a "home network" can someone/anyone suggest, an easy way (if there is one) to "transfer files". I bought a lap top about a week ago, and I am wanting to transfer some files from my desktop to my laptop! I tried a "home network" , didnt work out so good for me! It would seem to me that I should be able to just hook the two computers together and go! Is this posible, and if so, how?
Thanks to all!

 

Transfer via cd burner to a cd and then put them on the other one. I used just my floopy drive to do a lot of this. I am thinking of one of those little thumbdrive deals that just plug into a USB port and can hold 1gig+

 

Yeah, a USB flash drive would be the cheapest and easiest. Depending on the file sizes you need to transfer you can get a 128Kb for under $20 at Wal-Mart or the like.

 

cheapest method ever is just to e-mail things to yourself, go to the other machine and download them from there.

Quicker, get a USB Flash drive

Also quick, but wastes discs, burn CDs or DVDs with your files on them

alternate solution, have someone come to your house and set up a Wireless Router
then you can have your laptop and your desktop connected to the net and each other all the time.

If you just want to plug the two machines into each other "and go" as you say, go get a CROSSOVER cable, not an ethernet cable (there is a difference)
and try setting up the network connection again. Once the network connection has been established, you will need to share a folder on the laptop (right click -> properties -> sharing), then go to your desktop, open up "My Computer" and type \\nameoflaptop
navigate into the folder you shared and drag and drop your files

Not exactly short, I know, but once you set it up and get it working the first time, it becomes a snap to do it in the future.

 

Buy a cross-over network cable. Hook PC to PC

Set dekstop IP informaiton to

IP: 192.168.1.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
DW: leave it blank..

On laptop
IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
DW: leave it blank..

Turn off the windows firewall and another firewalls setup

On Desktop

open my computer right click C drive and share it as "c" (no quotes)

On Laptop

Start, run, type "\\192.168.1.1\c" (no quotes)

You'll have full access with nothing more than a cross over patch cable and 100mbps transfer rates.

 

I know it took me about a week to finally get my network all working like it should even using the network wizzard in windows. Now that it works I love it, if I have my desk top pc on my laptop can share the internet connection without even having a wireless router, plus the file sharing was a litlle confusing but like mentioned eariler as long as you put the files you want in the shared folder you can pick them up on either PC. The network wizzard helped alot as long as you follow it step by step wich I skipped a few steps the first couple of time

 

I find the wizard little help and ussually f's things up especially when trying to connect to a mac or anything else not NTFS.
So I always do mine manually.

If you do want them networked and dont want a router and that's the only two computers then a crossover cable as mentioned. This can also be used as a cat cable on most newer routers. Most newer routers have an automatic switch that detects and automatically switches the port so that it is used like a standard straight thru Cat.

There are also USB networking cables that just plug unto the USB on each computer and you can transfer files. I think even walmart has those too. I have never set up a USB network so can't say how easy or hard it might be. I'm guess very easy, probably pretty much plug it in and go. But I don't know.

Then there are the USB jump drives, sometimes called thumb drives.
If you don't have one of these then this would be what I would recomend.
You can get these at wal-mart relatively cheap, especially for the convienence. I use one for data great for transferring spread sheets and presentations to work. Then I use one to store MP3's and play them in any vehicle with an FM radio on my FM modulator w/ usb port. Company truck is just AM/FM radio. So if I have to take it anywhere I always have my tunes on my jump drive and can just plug the FM modulator into the ciggerette lighter.

If you need help with networking microsoft has many great step by step tutorials and trouble shooting on thier site.
http://search.microsoft.com/results....-US&FORM=QBME1

 

hey thaks for all the advice, this is my project for this week! will this info, maybe this time it will work