home networking question

[bartjones]

I have a queastion about networking 2 computers. I recently purchased a new computer. The old one is a bit out of date (PII400) but still works fine. I had 2 hard drives in it and have installed the larger of the 2 in the new machine. I would like to add another large drive to the old machine, network the 2 machines and use the new large drive for backup.

I have been reading what I can about networking the 2 machines. The articles all seem to say that you need a second LAN card in the server machine and a hub, but my friend has recently done it with just the second LAN card and a cable connecting the 2 machines.

The machines both run W98SE. I am wondering about the following;

a. do I need a hub if I just want to connect the 2 machines for backing up stuff on the new machine?

b. do all the LAN cards have to be the same make and model? The LAN card in the old machine is the old style card with the long connection to the motherboard.

Thanx in advance for your help.

[Norm]

You need 2 nics in one machine if you want to use that 'one' machine for internet as well, if not, you only need one nic in each.

You don't need a hub, all you need is a 'crossover' cable instead of the regular 'straighthru' patch cable. You can get one at any store that deals in computer accessories.

The nic cards can be any make or model, but PCI (the shorter slots) are best, and 10/100 nics will give you a lot faster throughput. Instead of transfering at 10mbs you'll be able to transfer at 100mbs. That's megaBits per second, not megabytes.