Another alternative that is possible.  If you have a network card in each machine,
which is likely with the new machine and may even be the case with your older
machine, you can simply create a peer to peer network.  If you have two monitors,
this is easier but can still work with a single monitor.

The connections for a network cable look like the female recepticals for the plugs that telephones use
(only a bit bigger, RJ-45) http://www.gpskit.nl/images/rj45pcb.jpg .
        http://www.it.utah.edu/services/helpDesk/connectedhelp/actiontec/images/cat5_2pc.jpg

If you have a router, which you might, you need two straight through RJ-45 ethernet cables:
             http://kbserver.netgear.com/images/1561_straight_ethernet.jpg
       [Vista::RJ-45]<===RJ-45 cable===>[router]<===RJ-45 cable===>[RJ-45::Win98SE]
e.g.:  http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/11/23/pc_interfaces_101/rj_45_cables.jpg
       http://particle.teco.edu/software/bridge/WBridge/v1.0/documentation/images/back_router_large.jpg
It does not matter whether your router also has wireless capability because you'll be using the LAN ports.

Without a router, you need one RJ-45 cross-over cable:
       [Vista::RJ-45]<===RJ-45 cross-over cable===>[RJ-45::Win98SE]
       192.168.1.100                                                      192.168.1.101         -- example IP addresses
        http://discountcablesusa.com/568A-568B.gif  http://www.codekeeper.info/images/crossover.gif

In both cases, you'll have to enable networking and file sharing on both computers.  The TCP/IP addresses
have to be on the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.nnn) and have the same subnet mask (e.g. 255.255.255.0)
and should belong to the same workgroup, e.g.:  WORKGROUP or MSHOME.
                         How to Configure a Peer Network
                         http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250927
The IP addresses will have to be different because two computers on the same peer to peer network
can not have the same network address, just as two houses on the same street should not have the
same house number.  In the example above, I randomly chose 192.168.1.100 and192.168.1.101.

Hope this helps.

Regards, gerry

vegan gerry lowry
wasaga beach ontario canada

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
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