LWood said:
Does anyone know if I could use a laptop (with DVD drive) as an external
drive for a desktop (that does not have a DVD drive)?
Not as in just plugging in a USB drive, but you could easily network
the two computers together, and then share the DVD drive.
On each WinXP PC, create local user account(s), with non-blank
password(s), that have the desired access privileges to the desired
shares. Log on to the other PCs using those account(s), and you will be
able to access the designated shares, provided your network is
configured properly. Also, make sure that WinXP's built-in firewall is
disabled on the internal LAN connection.
Usually, WinXP's Networking Wizard makes it simple and painless --
almost entirely automatic, in fact. There's a lot of useful,
easy-to-follow information in WinXP's Help & Support files, and here:
Home Networking
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/homenet/default.asp
Networking Information
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking.htm
PracticallyNetworked Home
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/index.htm
Steve Winograd's Networking FAQ
http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm
--
Bruce Chambers
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