networking 2 pc's together

Just wondering how hard is it to network 2 pc's together so that I can transfer a large amount of data between the two. THe cd burner is not working in the one that has the data and the operating system is wat to unstabe. Both are running xp home. I was planning to hook up both of them to an ethernet cable and run with it. Am I thinking clearly or not. What is a good way of doing this?

 

Ideal would be a switch and two cat5 cables.

Of course you will need two network cards as well.

A slower, albeit cheaper alternative is a crossover cable between two Network cards.

Check Help and Support on the XP machine on Home Networking. Lots of great info to be had.

 

The keyword there if you're not going to get a switch or router is CROSSOVER cable. It is not your garden variety network cable.

 

May be this can Help.

Link to: How I connect two computers to exchange files (No Network or Internet Sharing)?

Log to this page it has a lot of links to instructions to Windows Network Settings, and Sharing.

Link to: Windows Network - Installing & Sharing.