Thanks. I'm planning going network soon (still hesitate between wirless or not) but just for now I only need to get a file here and there from time to time and just being able to connect these 2 computers the most simple way will do it for now. I'll check these settings in Windows pannel and twinkle with those.
Thanks again!

wireless rocks.

And you got the same performance as connection via wires
?

I did this for a while with Windows ME. IT worked but was not very stable. Sometimes it would not work, sometimes one would lock up.

There is a network program designed for firewire, I think it is called Firenet.

XP might work better.

You also have to be careful, I read that it is possilbe to fry your firewire cards when connecting them. Never happened to me, but there is some warning about it.

right now I have two computers connected directly together using a Reversing Network cable and the network connections. The network is setup just between the two computers, no hub. It works great.
Dave T2

The fastest I've seen wireless is 108MB, but that's using one company's proprietary compression and is probably the ideal. With 802.11g you can get 54MB reliably, but every machine you want to connect needs a wireless card or adapter.

If you only want to connect a couple of computers, go get a "switch". The switch won't need crossover cables and can handle different speeds (10MB or 100MB) connected to it. A 5-port 10/100 switch goes for less than $50.

I must admit that I have only had any proper networking experience using windows xp systems.

Using firewire under xp is as simple as using CAT5 crossover - plugin the cables to both computers and XP should help you do the rest (I think you may need to use the network wizard, but it is simple and quick).

you do NOT need Unibrains Firenet software under XP, and this is a good thing as I found it a bit tricky to set up (under 98SE).

Firewire, at 400Mb/s is faster than standard 100Mb/s CAT5 - I would think it is unlikely that your computers would have gigabit (1000Mb/s lan (but it is starting to appear in consumer systems and on motherboards). Having said this, you will never reach those peak speeds in either system, and if you are only transfering a few files it won't make much difference to you.

Both firewire & CAT5 will let you do things like share printers & net connections.
Both are hot-plugable.

firewire (400) has a cable length of approx 5.5 metres, CAT5 is approx 100m, but it doesn't sound like this will matter in your case.

I personally would use whatever networking capabilties you have - if both machines have firewire, use that as you already have the cable.

My current setup uses a 12Mb/s wireless system - we have a wireless ADSL modem that sits by the front door and lets us share net access using muliple pcs (& macs) anywhere in the house. Very cool, but I still haven't sorted out file/printer sharing between computers - I think it is related to security settings and I haven't bothered to look into it properly yet :)

The networking software for Ethernet is far more mature than for Firewire. Also the support is far more extensive. Wireless is wonderful for surfing the Internet, but not good for streaming. I've been trying to set up wireless for sharing MPEG (DVD, etc.) movies between computer and media center. I'm using 802.11g which can handle up to 54 mbs. However, even when the wireless connection utility in the laptop reports a certain data rate, it fails to report on dropped packets and subsequent re-tries. These things absolutely kill streaming. Stick with wired systems when packet loss is important (or don't go more than 10-20 feet from the base station).

Thanks everybody.
I'm trying to get these two computers together via the FireWire connections settings but it's not working... I've been rebooting both machines for I don't know how many times now... still doesn't work.
There's something I don't get.
Must be tired...

Futz - Sit down and relax . . . .

First off I aint no programmer or pc tech. I posted much here about my concerns regarding connecting my Dell laptop and Vegas editing pc, either by firewire OR networked cabling.

Back in November I purchased a new pc, it came with its own network card. A 3-Comm. It was part of the package. This pc works on XP pro. I also have a Dell laptop. It too originally - 2000 - came with a 3-Comm network card. This works on WinME. So 2 different OSs and 2 very, but not that different pcs. Okay. I wanted to "link" the 2. I was advised to get a "twisted" cable to link the 2. When the XP box appeared I was talked through - over the phone - how and install the network capabilities from one to the other. Yes, I did ask about the f/w options, but was advised to go the twisted cable route. It works. It works very well. What can I do with this? I can open Vegas on the XP pc, access media on the WinME laptop and play this media on my external monitor, the media that resides on the WinME laptop. It is very, very bolted down. It works. Its cute and I can create graphics stuff on my laptop; take stuff of the Internet and have this imported via the twisted cable to the XP pc; I can create stuff on the XP pc and send this to the WinME laptop and then off to the Internet to go wherever. It works. I have Norton AV and I had too set-up the "other" pc as a "trusted" pc and that kept that happy.

My advise? Find someone who is network savvy - there're plenty out there and either pay or come to some arrangement that the consultant/friend will feel happy with and get it sorted. Look, if I can do it at the end of a telephone, so can you. My only experience of f/w has been a one way street. Meaning, my laptop will recognise the external drives only in sequence when each drive is switched on in strict sequence. If I don't do it this way then the 4 drives can get mixed up. How 2 separate pcs can recognise each other in the correct way, via f/w is beyond me. I'm sure its very possible, but it's way beyond my meagre abilities.

Best regards,

Grazie

Having read the comments, I think I might get myself a new network/ethernet card or a router (even better). I wanted to use FireWire because my network card has just got one output (that goes to my modem for internet). I coundn't plug these two computers together without unplugging internet.
But I'll get a router/switcher/gizmo that splits the ins/outs and use network cables I guess. Lots of times these routers are on sale and there's even one that's got a Firewall inside...
Thanks for advice!

futz, if you are not running XP on both machines then maybe it's not worth it...

but... firstly I agree that getting a router should make like easier in the long run.

secondly, you can (again, using XP as my reference) 'daisy chain' your network like this:

modem>CAT5>Desktop>Firewire>Laptop

but of course you'd have to get firewire working first ;-)

If cat5 is this blue network wire that most people use, then it's exactly the setup I'm trying to achieve since the beginning. The problem is linking these 2 computers together via FiWire: I tried every setting possible to my (limited) knowledge and followed indications but one won't "see" the other one every time I try...

PS: XP on both machines

Go back to my first response to you question: Use a crossover cable (they are usually, but no always, orange). You just plug the network card of one computer into the network card of the other computer. No router, no hub, no hassle. The Windows software for networking using Ethernet is fifteen years down the larning curve, so it works, and generally is easy to set up (sometimes you just plug it in and go). The network drivers for Firewire, by contrast, are an afterthought. Firewire was invented and has been perfected for something different, so the development and support effort hasn't gone into making it simple, crash-resistant, etc.

The $5 for a crossover cable is cheap compared to all your other alternatives and has no downside at all.

Hiyah JM! - That's exactly the route I took, In fact the company supplied me free [ yeah yeah yeah, they had already sold me the pc! ] an orangey red "crossover" cable so I just plugged it into the correct sockets on the pc and the docking station on the Dell I'm typing this on. The only bit of jiggery pokery was to get Norton Anti Virus s/w to recognise that the pc wasn't an enemy! But after that, and sometimes needing to reboot the laptop, due to pilot error, it's been flawless. I can read AVIs from the latop on the pc and have them work within Vegas ON the pc. It just works!

I aint no programmer . . If I can do it others can . . All I needed was to be talked down by the techie at the pc company. He was just great.

Regards,

Grazie

Yeah, but like I said: how do you plug to internet with such a config?
In my case, I got ONE network plug on each computer and my modem needs one too in order to provide me with internet. Your cable, it's a "Y" cable ("two-fer") ?

If you need internet to 2 or more PCs and have broadband, get a router/switch. 4 port switch models are $35-ish and up. Then you get 10/100 Ethernet switch, hardware firewall, and router all in one.

Or, if you have dialup, one PC can be configured with Internet connection sharing and the other will get internet over the crossover connection.

ThANkS jester!

Had the impression it was the only way. FireWire seem to be too much af a hassle for now so I'll invest in this router. I think there's a model on sale with a firewall inside.
The only way to "ping-pong" information between these 2 computers now is to plug my external hard drive to both (one with firewire and the other with USB2) and switch/unswitch the ext.drive manager. When I unswitch one, the other computer "recognises" a new unit... and vice versa. You figure out how I'm tired of it now... not mentionning that if you want to share a file, you have NOT TO forget to put this file on ext. hard drive before switching... ¦ P

Thanks to all for replies!

Ah, didn't realize you had a high-speed Internet connection. In that case, everyone is correct: you need a router/switch or router/hub combination. With that, you don't need the crossover cable. Just plug the router to your DSL or Cable "modem" and then plug your computers into the switch or hub ports. The switch is generally considered a "better" option than the hub because it supplies contant bandwidth to each computer (well, constant if the network traffic doesn't change) and therefore is better for things like streaming video. Therefore, I'd recommend the router/switch combination, even though these devices are a little more expensive than the router/hubs.