Connecting 2 XP PCs via ehternet cable (troubles)

Hello All,

I am having issues connecting two XP (pro & media, SP2) PC's [Dell - old dimension 450 (host), Dell new Gen 4 XPS (guest) via an ethernet card (TCI 10/100) and cable. I am just trying to access files/folders on the old PC to download to my new PC since my old HD is ATA and my new incompatible HD is SATA. Can I connect these two by a network cable or just by a crossover cable? The cable I am using is just the one supplied for my cable modem (broadband) - then I connected it to both PC's.

I treid Network wizard, I tried to rename both PC's, I tried to turn off my FW, I tried the Network Connection Disk to no avail. Do I have the wrong cable, do I need 3 party software to do this (Netbui?), do I need a router?

Any help would be appreciated. I would need some step by step guidance since I have failed so far. I have looked at other posts but none seemed to match my exact unknown problem (at least to me).

Thanks a bunch!

 

You will need a cross-over cable. The cable that came with your router is most likely just a straight-through cable. Once you get a cross-over cable, hook the two pc's together and give them static IP addresses so that they are on the same network and can see each other.

Example

PC1 - IP: 192.168.1.2 Subnet: 255.255.255.0
PC2 - IP: 192.168.1.3 Subnet: 255.255.255.0

Hope this helps
Eric