I'm working with two PIII computers, one running Win98SE and the other WinXP. Both are currently connected to a DSL router. I would like to network them to transfer files. I have two additional network adapters and a crossover cable, and am aware I should assign a fixed address to these cards, but I've hear I will probably encounter IRQ problems with two cards per machine. It may be possible to disable sound on both computers to free up an IRQ. I'm also aware I'll need to try different PCI slots. Anything else I should know? Jim T.

You have them plugged into to the router don't you? Do they both get internet? If so then hey bud you don't need all that extra stuff. so forget the irq conflicts and all that stuff. Look first you see if you can ping each other so you know they can see each other. Next you enable file&print sharing with then both in the same workgroup. Ah heck there are guides to your left on the screen here and tons on the internet for me to reinvent the wheel here. Just follow the guides and you will be fine. Golly gee wilerkers everyone! Learn to Internet Search

Um, should have said DSL hub, I guess. All the computers in the place are connected to DSL, but none are part of an ethernet network. Sharing DSL through the first computer is undesirable, so a separate network between these two has to be set up. I used Firewire on two others-- which is tricky even with Firenet--but the folks wanted ethernet on these two.

You seem to be overcomplicating...... http://www.lantronix.com/learning/networking.html Internet Modem and Router each PC If the router acts a DHCP server each PC can have auto assign IP

DSL hub? never heard of such a thing. are you getting multiple ip addresses from your ISP? Must be if its only a hub. I won't get into the security issues [nonexistant] with this configuration skootsi so its a hub. do you understand if you have your pcs plugged into it they can communicate between themselves which is what file sharing is about? It seems to me you are missing this point. Or maybe you need to describe your layout with like what connects to what Golly gee wilerkers everyone. Learn to Internet Search

DSL distribution device, then. I didn't install it, it doesn't belong to me, so I don't know much about it other than the fact that it allows four PCs to be connected to the DSL modem. We were happy with that, even though we had six computers and had to disconnect this computer or that from time to time. I don't have physical access to it this week, so I can't give much more information. It doesn't network any computers. I can investigate and see if it will also network, although checking out the networking on the other computers prior to installing Firewire showed no signs of a network, disconnected/frustrated or not. There are no plans to create a network of all six computers. Just pairs for file transfer of a specific nature. So the two computers are connected to the DSL distribution device, but, at the moment, to nothing else. Since these two computers are, by necessity, beyond the reach of USB or wirewire cables, that leaves ethernet. Did I mention the need for cheapness (non-profit organization)? Since we had two network cards, all we needed was the crossover cable, which was cheap enough. If it turns out to be impossible to hook up the two computers this way, or if more hardware is required, I guess we'll just run back and forth with CD-RWs. Some people seem to have made it work, though.

If they all connect to the same ethernet device you can network them. Clearly no one has tried which is why you don't see any network. Cheap solution is to buy a hub [$10 at goodwill] and a crossover cable. connect from one of the 4 ports to the hub. Now you can get 6 machines on barring ip restrictions. Golly gee wilerkers everyone! Learn to Internet Search