hi i need help. i've connected my computer with my next door neighbour but he recently formatted his comp and install xp and sp2. i've connected to him via a crossover cable. all drivers are installed but i still cannot access his comp and vica versa. Can someone give me a step by step or something please? thank u in advance

Have either of you created a share of any kind? You can't connect to what isn't there. Here's a simple setup for two PC's connected via crossover: PC 1 IP Address: 192.168.0.1 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 PC 2 IP Address: 192.168.0.2 Subnet Mask: same as above With those settings in place, you should be able to connect to each other providing you have something to connect to (ie: a shared folder). You may find once you get setup and create a shared folder that when the other computer attempts to connect to the shared resource they are asked for a login with username/password. If this happens, simply make a user account on each PC for the other (ie: on PC 1, make an account for PC 2 and vice versa). Use the exact same username/password used to log onto the PC you wish to connect from to create the account on the target PC. Example: PC 1 username: Joe password: mypassword On PC 2, create a user account using the above info for username/password.

You mentioned your neighbour has installed XP SP2. Make sure all the firewall services are disabled, otherwise you're in for a lot of trouble. SP2 enables them all by default, regardless of what any previous settings were. Andy