I just bought a new computer and I want to know the easiest way to connect my 2 pc's so I can transfer some word, mp3's and wave files over to my new system. I'm not up on computer lingo, so please give me the "Instructions for Dummies" version :o) Thanks for any info...Joey

ok. there are several ways to swap media between 2 pcs. its all a matter of how convinient you want it, how easy you want it, how cheap you want it, or how speedy you want it. Convinient: networking is a great choice. you would need a network hub, network cable that can reach from the pc to the hub, 2 network cards, and a little technical knowledge (you can get home networking kits that simplify it all). home networking can cost as little at £/$40 and can transfer an unlimited ammount of data at an aproximate rate of 1 gigabyte for 20 minutes. you can also share an internet connection through this. Easy: a cd-rw will allow you to write media to a cd that can not only be read by the second machine, but any other machine. you can get some stores to install it for you but self installation is pretty easy as long as you read the instructions again and again. a CD-rw can cost as little as £/$60. each cd can hold around 650 MB. burn time for each cd is around 16 minutes. Cheap: a very cheap option but one i cannot advise on is to establish a direct machine link with a serial cable or crossover network cable. cost should be insignificant (unless there is major distance between the machines), cant advise on the difficulty or transfer rate. Speedy: if you only plan this to be a one time transfer for a large ammount of data the cheapest and quickest solution is to transfer one of the hard drives to the other machine and then do a direct transfer hard drive to hard drive. this is about as technical as the cd-rw installation with a few other problem points. the cost is 0 and the transfer rate is v-fast. a superbe solution for a one time transfer if a little technical.

you can get a USB patch kit at any RadioShack for about $25. Just connect your PC's together with the USB and transfer away... Not as good as a network, but will do what you're looking for...