How to connect laptop and desktop w/NICs

Fri Apr 11 05:11:02 PDT 2003

Hi all,

I am making a first foray into home networking.  I have little (read: none)
experience in this.  All I have done is my firewall for my dialup on my
laptop.

My new desktop box just had 4.8 installed, and the laptop is 4.7.  Both have
NIC cards.  I have a set of cables and a switch, and also a direct
(crossover) network cable.

What is the easiest way to 
Connect my laptop to my desktop for file transfers?

Also, I followed basic instructions for setting up natd and a gateway on the
laptop so I could dial out and have the desktop use it as a gateway, but the
desktop does not seem to recognize anything beyond its NIC card.  What steps
should I follow to figure out where my config is wrong?

thanks,
jonathon

NOTE: Please CC me, as I am not currently subscribed.  Thanks.

jm
-- 
My other computer is your windows box.