My laptop arrived today and I'd like to transfer my mp3's from the old desktop computer to the notebook.

How do I go about that?

The desktop is on a LAN with my bro's pc, maybe I can plug his cable into the laptop and transfer that way?

Also, I've got a network cable (don't know if that's relevant)

I'm not good at this kind of thing, so detailed explanation would be very much appreciated. ;)

Well, networking is about the only thing I don't know how to do with computers, so I'm going to suggest you burn a CD with all the Mp3 files on it.

Or you could use a USB memory "drive"...mine only cost about $20 and it can hold 128MB...all you have to do is plug it in to an USB port and Windows XP takes care of the rest. :rolling:

Plug your brother's LAN cable in your laptop and it should work. Be sure to add your laptop's IP to your pc's thrusted zone if you are running a program like ZoneAlarm (or perhaps something similar with other programmes like SP2's built in fire-wall). Share your folder with the mp3s in it on your pc (if you're running XP or 2000 on your pc, I don't think you need to do this if you're Windows 98) and start transfering.

Thanks Mesmero!

Yeah, you can hook the computers up directly, and just use windows file sharing to do the transfer. Just make sure you turn off file sharing on both comptuers when you get done with the transfer. You could use an FTP transfer if you set both IP's manually, and connect across. You could telnet. Samba share. There's ten or twenty ways of doing it, but the actual physical connection is what matters the most.

Ethernet works a couple of different ways. There's "patch cords" and there's "crossover cords".

Only when you're hooking up a hub-device to another hub-device, or an NIC to a hub-device, do you need to use a crossover. So a hub to a hub, a switch to a switch, a router to a router, a switch to a router, a hub to a switch, a hub to a router. A NIC to a router. All of these need crossover/twisted-pair cables.

Cable modems (strangely enough) are considered an NIC in this scheme, so you would need a straight-through.

For connecting network clients (NIC), you need a "patch cord". I always call a "patch cord" a "straight through". There's a crossover/twisted pair cord, and that's exactly what it is. If you have 1-2-3-4-5-6[b] on one side of the cord, you'd have [b]2-1-3-5-4-6 on the other side of the cord (not exactly, but just to illustrate). Two pairs of wires are "twisted", so the transmit signal on one device is going to the receive wire on the other device. It's also to cancel out crosstalk, but that's a bit of physics. The "straight through" would have the same 123456 on both sides, and a "1" would lead to a "1" on the other side. The wires on one end match up with the wires on the other end, and you wire both RJ-45's connectors the exact same.

You have two computers; two Network Interface Cards (NIC). You need a straight-through to connect them. If you have a cord that's labeled "patch cord", that's a straight through. If you have a cord that's labeled "twisted pair" or "crossover", then you can't use it. It won't hurt anything, but it just won't work or it will work VERY sporatically.

Actually, you got that a bit muddled. A crossover is needed for direct NIC to NIC (hub to hub etc.) connections and that's about it. Hubs, switches, routers etc. handle the connections properly internally, so you don't have to cross the transmit signals over to the receive signal pins when connecting a computer to these devices.

Also, twisted pair is not another name for crossover. Twisted pair wires are where (obviously) pairs of wires are twisted together to reduce crosstalk interference. A CAT-5 cable has eight wires configured into 4 twisted pairs. Ethernet uses 2 of the pairs: one for Tx+ and Tx-, and one for Rx+ and Rx-.

So. If you have two computers each with an ethernet NIC card that you want to connect directy to one another, you need a crossover cable (which can be bought). If you are connecting them through a router, switch, etc., you need a standard (staight-through) Category-5 cable.

Hmmmmm.

I'm no electrical engineer or compsci major. But experience has taught me otherwise. I do crimp my own CAT-5e cords. I have the A&B's pinouts saved back on a .gif, but it's been some time since I've had to mess with it.

Guess I should probably take another look...

I make my own CAT-5 cables as well, and I wired my house for my LAN myself. I also connected my two computers' ethernet cards directly together before I had the LAN set up. So, I know whereof I speak.