I have been looking for a cheap way to temporarily connect a laptop with xp home to a PC with XP pro. Does anyone have any advice on a cheap solution? I just need to get data from the laptop to the PC, no shared Internet connection is needed. Thanks to anyone who has an answer.

If you have a Ethernet/NIC card in both computers then just use a crossover cable plug it into each computer and configure for networking and away you go. If you don't like that idea then you can get a hub for 10 or 20 bucks and 2 Cat5 patch cables and that will be it. The hub is really the best way to go but doing it with a crossover cable is fine.

OR.. :) you can get a wireless PCMCIA card for your laptop and a wireless USB adapter for your desktop and set them up in ad-hoc mode and transfer the files that way! :)

Problem!! With my new XP Home laptop and XP Pro Desktop. In frustration I joined the Desktop to another PC running XP Pro and they communicated great but the laptop wont work with a crossover cable to either of the XP Pro's. I get the message about not having permission. The laptop sends and receives and shows the Desktop in Windows Explorer > Network > MSHOME but the Desktop only shows itself. 2 weeks I have been searching and reading but nothing works. Ping wont work for starters. Laplink wont work. If anyone can help I would appreciate it. (Bill Gates is driving me nuts and I hope he realizes it.) One other thing.. Bloody Microsoft have a walkthrough tute for direct cable connecting 2 PC's with a Cat 5 changeover cable. I thought I was onto something when I found it. BUT when I went to set things up on the XP Home... Network Connections > Create a new connection > Set up an advanced connection > Connect directly to another computer...THIS option was unavailable on my laptop but MS says it should be available.