File Transfer

I have a very old Windows 98 system with some inportant files on it. It has a floppy drive, but I do not want to use floppies as the total amount of files I need to transfer is around 144MB. It does not have a wireless card, but it has a LAN port. Is there a way to connect this to my Vista Laptop and transfer the files?

Also I read about Bridged Internet connections, which a computer can connect though a LAN cable to a computer with wireless internet. All the websites I visit all talk about XP, could anyone offer a good step by step guide for my Windows 98 to connect to the internet though my Vista Laptop?

Thanks

 

Thats an interesting device (thanks for making me aware of it) and it should do the job. Another (however similar) solution might be to remove the old drive and put it into a drive enclosure thus turning it into an external drive. This may be a better solution than the one above if you have such an enclosure already housing an external drive. Doing this (assuming you have the enclosure available) will save you having to buy the device and save you having to wait for it to arrive.

 

Why not just buy a cheap usb stick? 1gb are $10 or less it seems. Surely it has a USB port? Even USB 1.1 should transfer that in maybe 15 minutes?

Sul.

 

In addition even if the PC did have a USB port it would be USB 1. If there is a lot of data to transfer this could take a long time to accomplish. Of course this may not be an issue but .......

 

It does have a USB port, but it needs all sorts of drivers. I'm not sure where to get them for such an old computer. Isn't there a way for a direct connection (PC to PC) to work?

 

pc to pc using null modem cable is super duper slow. best bet if you can locate drives is usb. no fussing with externals, no swapping hdds. i myself would just make the hdd a slave in another machine,or stick another hdd in that machine as slave. you have also not explored a cd burner. ata/ide should work with it, and 144mb is easy to slip onto a cd.

yes, usb1.1 is slow, but faster than floppy and probably faster than monkeying around with networking if OP does not know how.

Sul.

 

RE drivers: There are programs that will scan your PC and identify what drivers are out dated or corrupted and then either tell you what they are or tell you what they are and download and install them for you. I don't know of any free ones though. The one I like the best is Driver Checker. Since this is a program that you should be using regularly on every PC you own it might be a good idea to purchase a licence. There is a free trial but it will only identify the drivers you need, to download and install them you will have to buy a licence. The nice thing about this program (other than the fact that it works which is more than I can say about a number of others I have tried) is that the entire process can be automatic. No need to manually download and install each driver individually. In addition you can back up your drivers with this program. You can find out more here http://www.driverchecker.com/

As to direct from one PC to another I have no idea about this. It has not been something I ever needed so I have not researched it at all.

 

Just found this, it might be what you are looking for. Please note I have not looked at it carefully so if its something already mentioned and rejected please forgive me.

http://www.ajcsoft.com/connect_computers_together.php

 

That is a crossover cable. Commonly used to network 2 computers together or 2 hubs that don't have a mdi-x switch. Network cables are typically in this fashion, look at end you insert wire into, with the tab thingee on the bottom

OrangeWhite-Orange -GreenWhite-Blue-BlueWhite-Green-BrownWhite-Brown

That is the color code sequence. The orange and gree are the ones important. TX and RX. A standard cat5 enet wire is straight through, meaning this code will be exactly the same on both ends. Technically, you can use green or orange, depending on who you talk to. That would be the standard. However, it does not matter which wire is where as long as it is the same.

But if you string a standard network cable between 2 10 or 10/100 nics, it will not work. each is sending on same line and recieving. So it fails. You need a crossover cable, so the ends are switched. This way computers don't both send on same wire. Simple really, it would look like this on one end

OrangeWhite-Orange -GreenWhite-Blue-BlueWhite-Green-BrownWhite-Brown

and this on the other

GreenWhite-Green-OrangeWhite-Blue-BlueWhite-Orange-BrownWhite-Brown

This is not needed if you have a switch or hub though, as you can connect the old and new computer both and not need crossover cable.

Intersting that most gigabit nics have auto mdix, meaning you can connect two of them directly together with a standard cable, and they sense this and create a crossover themselves.

Sul.

 

WOW, my head is spinning from your post. Much/most/all of what you wrote is way over my head. I gather however that the device will work for the purpose as outlined in the thread creators opening post. Could I trouble you for a bit more info on using a hub to do this? Are you talking about a USB hub or something else and if USB how do you set it up to move data from PC A to PC B,,,,or it simply a matter of copying from PC A to B. You mention a hub with a switch so I expect you are not talking about a USB hub. A bit more info will be much appreciated.

 

Yes of course. First though here is something to look at that will perhaps shed more light on the topic of cat5 wiring.
http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx

So you note that an ethernet cable uses a code of colors for industry standards. One set used is the transmission, one the recieved. Normally when connecting a computer to a hub/switch/router, it is expected to be wired straight through. The hub/switch/router then inter-connects within itself to send the proper signal on the proper wire to another port that goes to another computer. So normally all ethernet wires are wired the same.

It comes to fail however if you use a standard ethernet cable between 2 computers, because they will both be transmitting and recieving in opposition to the other. Normally then you would use a crossover cable so that a direct connection between 2 computers can establish and communicate.

Further, many hubs will have one specific port, and often a button, that will make one of the ports what is called mdi-x. Which means, if you connect 2 hubs together with a standard ethernet cable, the same situation that occurs when 2 computers are hooked together. No communication. The special port and/or button basically internally switches the wiring of the port so that a crossover effect happens.

Normally switches and routers have no such limitation, as every port can be use a standard ethernet cable.

So, if you connect 2 computers to a hub using standard straight thru ethernet cables, it all works. If you hook computer A into hub A, and computer B into hub B, and then interconnect hub A to hub B, with a standard cable, communication will fail unless one of the hubs interconnection is using the mdi-x port. Or, if your hubs have no feature (doubtful) you could use a crossover cable to interconnect the hubs.

Using a crossover cable on 2 computers is easy. You will need to set static ip addresses (192.168.1.x) on each. Then connect the cable. Create a share and then in the run box easiest just to type \\computername. Then if they 2 computers are in the same ip segment and there is a share on \\computername, it will show. Now you can copy paste.

And no, no USB hub involved.

Does that help?

Sul.

 

Another option for the OP, if there is internet access with decent speed, upload to a file sharing storehouse. Or create a gmail account and use this
http://majorgeeks.com/download4405.html

which is a gmail drive. It acts as a removable storage device. You can then create folders on gmail account and copy/paste files to it. With a fast connection, it should be ok to do as well.

Then you can copy to the other computer, or leave there as archive.

Sul.

 

Thank you very much for the explanation. Its still fuzzy but much less so. The gmail idea sounds very interesting as well. I will have to give it a try.

 

It can be done. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx
But the easiest way is to install Teamviewer on both machines and use it to transfer the files.

Panagiotis

 

I have a question. If you were to use TeamViewer on two local machines, what rate do they transfer? WAN rates or LAN rates?

Sul.

 

If you connect them with the feature "Lan connections only" enabled the files are transfered at lan rates.

Panagiotis

 

Well, it does not solve the problem of a novice having to set up a network, but it is nice to know.


What about local p2p that is fast? Ever seen something like that? Where you have maybe 10 computers, with a large file on say half of them, and using a local p2p, 1 other machine gets parts from the ones that do?

Curiosity.

Sul.

 

If the novice uses a router with DCHP enabled he won't have to set anything. He will only have to use the lan adress of the computer he wants to access and he will be ready to go.

It can be done with torrent and local peer discovery enabled in his torrent application.

Panagiotis

 

True that. I use static way too much I guess.

You are saying some torrent engines will have this option? Hmm. I will look. Don't use them much, but I could see uses in LAN's.

Sul.