i have a 7100/80 av and a new g4. i was considering connecting them via ethernet crossover cable. if one computer is connected to the internet via modem or cable modem, will the other be "on line" automatically. i was also wondering if i could save video input from the 7100's av card directly to the g4's hd via ethernet. oh, one more thing, my printer only connects to the 7100, can i print from both computers once they are networked. Thanks for the help!

SH, NO, connection via ethernet (crossover cable or not) does not simply enable the second mac to have internet access through the host. You need a second e-net card for the host machine and a software product like something called "SurfDoubler" by Vicomsoft to make all this happen. Saving Video over the wire may not work only because video needs a fast transfer from source to hard drive. Going 10-base-T (e-net) is much slower and more bottlenecked than going SCSI (7100's local drives). I'd be surprised if the software allowed it, but what's it hurt to try? Mount the G4's drive via AppleShare in the chooser and give it a shot. The G4's drives are lightning compared to the 7100, and it may work. Incidentally, If you are going to be trying all this heavy duty ethernetting I hope you have a good quality cable. It's worth having them e-netted for many reasons, and for the low cost of a good cable you should definitely do it. You can enable Printer Sharing through the chooser to allow remote macs to print 'through' a host machine to the hosts local printer via e-net, but it only works with Apple printers unless you can find one of the 3rd party software workarounds for that if it is available for your particular printer.