I just had an interesting thought the other day. If I get a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable and hook it between two computers, will I be able to make a firewire connection between the two so I can transfer files?

I've heard from people who just plugged the cables in and had
a 400 mbit connection (they also claim there is a special firewire
driver in their network configuration screen). I've also heard
people who claim it didn't do nothing. Personally I have only
one machine with firewire and that machine is running Windows
2000. So I can't try it out for myself....

Let us know if you test it what happens!

I do exactly that, however, I use some software from UNIBRAIN to manage the interface. It works excellently as for a small LAN system, allowing file transfers between nodes at 400 Mb/sec. No routers or hubs required.

I have firewire via my Audigy card and it includes firewire networking drivers.

I tried it at our school lab today between two XP computers, nothing seemed to happen. However, when I unplugged the cable it gave me a network connection unplugged warning, so obviously it recognized it but didn't really do anything with it.

The setup between two computers with Win XP ad firewire ports is fairly involved. Open the CONTROL PANEL/NETWORK CONNECTIONS icons and select NETWORK SETUP WIZARD. Then follow the prompts.

Just for reference, you do it on a Mac by turning off one computer, hooking up the cable and then starting up the computer and holding down the T key. This is called FireWire target mode and the internal hard drives of the second computer will show up on your desktop.

Bill is right you will not need anything more than what's in XP Pro, not home edition, though (sorry). Just set it up like any other TCP/IP network. Create the network using any of the reserved or internal IP addresses, ie.10.1.1.0 (subnet 255.255.255.0) or 192.168.1.1(subnet 255.255.255.0) and just remember to assign a unique address to each machine and XP will do the rest. Oh, be sure to enable File Sharing service in order to share files across the LAN. Remember: Without a repeater IEEE1394 has a cable limit of 15ft of maxiumum length.

After I put my firewire network in place about a year ago I did a "how to" video, which Unibrain bought. It's at
http://www.unibrain.com/1394_products/1394_networking/firenet_pc.htm
I should mention that WinXP wasn't involved. The two pc's run Win2KPro and Win98SE.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : Just for reference, you do it on a Mac by turning off one computer, hooking up the cable and then starting up the computer and holding down the T key. This is called FireWire target mode and the internal hard drives of the second computer will show up on your desktop. -->>>

Ah, Macs make it so easy!!