I am trying, in my amateur way, to transfer data from and old ME computer to a new XP Media Edition computer, both Presarios. Is particular software required to do this? I connected them with a crossover cable, and both have ethernet cards, but the new machine did not show the old machine as a drive, or therefore, at all. I thought it was going to be a case of plug-and-pick, but I guess not. Thanks for any advice.

You need to assign each computer a static IP address. Info for XP with screenshots is available here. WinMe should be similar but annoyingly requires a reboot. Typically you assign IP Address 192.168.0.1 (subnet mask 255.255.255.0) to one machine and IP Address 192.168.0.2 (same subnet mask) to the other machine. Those are the only numbers you need to enter; everything else can be blank. You also need to enable sharing. I recommend sharing the ME hard with read access. Use your XP machine to connect to the share (\\192.168.0.1) and download the files. As an alternative, you could share the XP hard drive wth write access and use the ME machine to "upload" files, but this tends to be harder to setup since XP is more strict on security. Good luck

NetBEUI protocol is the easiest of all (don't tell M$ I suggested it). HERE is how you can install it. i_XpUser

If you don't want to have to puzzle it out, the easiest way of transferring data is to remove the drive from the old computer and jumper it appropriately and connect it to the new computer's data cable if you have spare connectors on the cable, or use the data cable from the old computer. E.g. if you have a spare connector on the data cable connected to the primary IDE on the new computer that has the hard drive connected to it, jumper your old drive as slave and connect it to that data cable. If both drive connectors on the primary data cable are being used, use your data cable from the old computer on the secondary IDE on the new one, and leave the old drive jumpered as master and connect to that data cable. Otherwise you need to have a local Network setup on both computers with the same workgroup name, have File and Printer Sharing enabled on both computers, then in order for both drives to appear in other than Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places, you must Map the network drive that you want to see on the new computer in order for it to appear in My Computer or Windows Explorer. File and Printer Sharing in XP automatically designates folders that are shared, and you can specify more folders if you like by right clicking and enabling sharing for other folders. If it is the same situation as Win 95/98/98SE, Win ME does not designate shared folders automatically when File and Printer Sharing is enabled - you must right click on the folder you want to share and enable the sharing. If your ME computer is relatively slow, it may not appear right away in My Network Places on the XP computer, or in Network Neighbourhood on the ME computer - give it some time.

To setup a LAN, run the Network setup wizard in the Control Panel. At the end of the Wizard you will get an option to create a floppy diskette. Run it on the other system to set up that system. If you run into problems, post on the 'Networking' forum. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

You folks have covered it several different ways. Thanks very much for your assistance and advice. d