The fact that you set a fixed IP address doesn't mean that you can't then just forget about it and access the machine by name. It DOES, however, make troubleshooting easier. If you know the addresses of the network components then you can attempt to access them directly. e.g If you ping an address and it fails then either the device doesn't exist or you have a TCP/IP problem. If you ping 'Sam' and it fails it may just mean that your DHCP server is unavailable. The Airport will solve your problem just fine... setting one of your machines to be the DHCP server would have resulted in complaints from the other one every time the 'server' wasn't booted first. A crossover cable is one of those 'blue things' with a couple of the wires reversed and is only necessary if you are connecting 2 machines directly. The reasons for this you probably don't want to know! Like most things about computers, if it's working then who cares how it is setup but if it's NOT working then knowing something about the situation may save you money. Garry

Maintaining separate IP addresses for 2 machines is hardly a headache! XP can provide its own headaches if left to work things out on its own. Don't forget to enable file sharing (and share something) or you won't be able to do much. If you are connecting the machines directly with a cable, use a crossover cable and assign the machines addresses like 192.168.0.100 and 192.168.0.101. If you are connecting both machines to a router use a regular cable and set the gateway address to that of the router and make sure you assign the machines addresses in the same range. (e.g. LinkSys is usually 192.168.1.###, D-Link is usually 192.168.0.###) Garry

I will add a vote for a clean install and then use Laplink's PCMover. After using it successfully to move my own stuff to a new machine I used it on about a half dozen client's machines. The ~$60 licence cost was less than the labour cost of me doing it manually. It's not perfect (you will probably have to reinstall CD burning software, for instance) but it's very good. I am a software developer so my machine had a LOT of apps. OTOH this DOES represent an opportunity to start with a clean slate and not transfer all of the things that you have accumulated and never really use so if you only use a few programs bite the bullet and start over. Garry (27yrs of PC experience)