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Ok, so I went to buy a "Parallel Laplink Cable" the other day. It's used to connect two computers via their LPT1 ports. SLOW, but low-cost.

I start messing with DCC (Direct Cable Connect in Win98) and realize just how powerless DCC is. You set up one computer as host, the other as client and only the client has access to files etc on the host, never the other way around. (unless you cancel the whole thing and reverse the process) Needless to say, this blows.

I need to get both computers to see each other and be able to push/pull files. USB is not an option.

So my question is: How do I set up a REAL network between these two computers without any extra hardware? (I'm guessing you'd have to fool Windows into seeing the LPT1 port as a network adapter... after that, it's easy)

Not that it matters, but these are truly OLD computers, a Pentium 120 and a 200.

(tongue-in-cheek) Note to all americans: Yes, there are people out there in countries far, far away who don't have liquid nitro cooled Athlon XPs running at a billion mhz and DSL connections to servers actually IN their country. forget Zen Buddism, a p120 with 32mb of ram running IE5 and Office 2000 on Win98 -WILL- teach you the patience of the Universe. pity me, please...

Okay, I'm no expert with networks at all, but I have a PARTIAL solution I think...

If you want to send work files etc. to and from the two systems, then why not just set up briefcase files...

I know they are awkward to work with and screw you about (try deleting stuff on one and it'll call the other an orphan, mean computer ) but it's a VERY low cost solution...

As for the specs, you have my pity, I have a K6-2 400 and it often crashes when ICQ tries to launch... so i disable it by default and only once in a blue moon do I end up running it... must learn to uninstall things

Out of interest, you're not too far off the speed of the Athlon XPs...

1 GHz = 1 billion cycles...

Okay, so you said a million billion (billion MHz) but you only over-estimated by a factor of about 588 on an AthlonXP 2000+

Whoops,
IntelMole

Cheers IM, briefcase might just speed things up a bit, although at the end of the day, I still want to end up with something that's going to behave like an ethernet network. like i said, for windows to be friends with it, i'll have to figure out a way to run a protocol (netbeui, IPX/SPX ?) over that wire...

JQ

I'm guessing that each of the boxes has an ISA slot. Why not 2 10BaseT cards and a crossover cable. Total cost about 25 bucks.

It's a true network for 2 boxes and it's fast.

-Howard

Oops. Sorry, missed the no extra hardware line. My bad.

Do you really mean *no* more hardware? I mean, you bought a Lap link cable. You can get two NICs and the xover cable for pretty darn cheap.

Okay, I am going out of my depth here...

Can't you use the two com ports?


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