Transfering files

[Silencer]

Alright, I'm getting a new computer but I still need/want files from my old one. Now how would be the best way to connect and share these files?

I have 2 computers and a wireless router. The old computer gets connected to the router with a cable. The other can access it wireless. Now I want to share files from the computer with the physical connection. I tried this before with my sisters laptop, but the problem was that I couldn't connect through IP, so I couldn't figure it out.

Any help with setting everything up would be appreciated.

[Knight of Time]

Well, first things first, does your old computer have a USB port on it, Silencer?

If it does, there are a couple of things you can try.

One, you can try and purchase a mini USB drive (small enough to fit a pocket) if you can find one, around where I am, they usually hold up to 4 GB of data. You just need to plug one in to the USB slot (if you have one) to be able to use one of these.

Two, if you have bigger files you want to keep (e.g. if they are at least a 100 MB or more each), then an external USB hard drive is better, but generally more expensive. They can carry much more space than the pocket sized versions (I've seen some on Dell that are quite expensive, but can carry at least 1 TB of data).

If not, then, about the only thing I can suggest for backing up important files of yours would be floppy disks (for the smallest files, mainly text files), or CD-RW's (but only if your old computer has the power to burn files onto a CD).

Either way, hope that helps.

[mr_pikachu]

Okay, I admit I've never done this before. And since my parents inexplicably refuse to secure our network, I'm not going to try it now. But I can at least explain the first part...

You'll need to start by enabling file sharing on your network. I'm not sure whether both computers need to enable this or just the sending computer, but if you're just doing a file transfer you may as well do them both for now. (Hopefully you're using Windows, because I really have no idea how to do this with a Mac.)

Go into your Control Panel and choose Network and Internet, then go to Network and Sharing Center (or whatever similar section exists on your OS). You should see that "Public Folder Sharing" is unchecked; enable this and any other applicable options like "File Sharing," "Media Sharing," etc.

If I'm right about how this works, you should be able to access the old computer's files and folders over the network now. Then it's just a matter of copying and pasting them permanently onto your computer.

...Keep in mind that I'm looking at this with Vista, and that I've never actually tried the full process before. So you should probably take this with a grain of salt. But if you want to avoid buying external storage devices, I believe this is your best bet. May as well give it a shot, right?

[Silencer]

Thanks pika, it's working. Sadly my router is freaking under the new computer. Maybe to much traffic or something?

Currently my connection is directly on my new comp so I got the internet. Taking a slight break (just transfered about a gig of files and it took over an hour) and will probably download some of the stuff I need again