hey, i just got started on the mac and am completely McIgnorant. I have many gigs of Mp3s on my Windows XP desktop that im looking to transfer to my iBook G4 (OSX 10.4.1). What would be the easiest way to do this? could i connect directly (usb? ethernet? other?)? i dont have a crossover cable, but i was told that Macs can automatically adjust if needed... anyways, thanks in advance for your help

http://www.macdisk.com/prospen.php3

1-You can connect to the windows machine through ethernet and Windows Desktop Remote Access and set the Mac drives to be seen by the windows machine. 2-You can connect to the windows server as a Mac Samba (SMB/CIFS)client and pull all the files into your hard drive

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=remotedesktopclient

You don't need a crossover cable, and remote desktop isn't needed either. Just connect a plain CAT5 cable to both of them and then set the PC up for file sharing. Then get its address (start>run>command>ipconfig its the address of you ethernet adapter for your connection to your iBook) Then go back to your iBook and hit command+K (command is the apple key) then type smb://yourpcaddress and hit connect. should work. P.S. If your PC doesn't have atatic address, then you'll need to set that and make sure your mac has a static address as well. If you run into an IP address starting with 169. then post again and I'll help.

XP has a network setup wizard. Set it up for a peer to peer network ( share with other computers?) Name the XP computer, set a workgroup name. Open windows explorer, right click the folder you want to move (on your desktop) and enable sharing, maybe even give it a shared name. Click 'Yes I am sure I want to enable sharing on the root of this drive...' if windows asks. You can come back later and disable sharing when you are done. Use the CAT 5 cable between the 2 computers. On a Mac, open Finder, click on network, and you should see something in the box. It should be there within about 5 minutes. Double click on the correct windows workgroup name, double click on the correct windows computer name, on the next box, you may have to click on the down arrow and pick the windows share's name, password is not needed if you didn't set one for networking on your own. Click connect or open and the name of the shared folder should be in the finder window in the upper left. You may even be able to import the MP3 files with iTunes once you can see the folder on the network. Something to consider anyway. OS X connects to my XP machines better than other XP machines do. If it's there (configured right) OS X will let you see it. I have a routered network so I can't swear that the mac will automatically cross over the regular cable, but I have heard it would too. It has been a while since I networked TCP/IP directly, but the XP Network wizard helped. You may want to go online for the latest version of the setup wizard from Microsoft because it has changed quite a few times.