I have an old laptop I bought on the forum. I want to transfer some things from my regular laptop to the older one I just purchased. I was told to go buy a serial cable (a 6' cable with a male and female db9) and just hook them to each other with that. So I did. I bought a 6' db 9 cable and a gender changer so I could hook them to one another.

So that's done, but I can't figure out how to make it work. I try to send files from one to the other, but nothing ever happens. Please help. I know there is probably an easier way to do it, but I've already bought the cable and gender changer, so I would rather use what I have if it can be done.

Thanks.

 

You need not just a gender changer, but a "Null Modem Adapter". Very similar, but two pins are crossed. I hate to say it, but you're going to need one before it'll work.

As a test, see if typing on one screen appears on the other. If it does, you're cool.

 

Yea, typing does not show up on either screen. I'll buy or build a null modem adapter tomorrow and hopefully that will get it going.

 

does one/both of the laptops not have a NIC? You could use a crossover cable and plug them into each other and transfer files over a network connection. You'd see much faster transfer rates than with a serial connection. It's been a while since i used a null-modem cable for anything, though i'm sure you have your reasons.

 

What's a NIC? I know the older laptop has a serial cable, a parallel cable, and video cable, and a slot for a 3.5 floppy. New laptop has a serial, and all the usual newer stuff the old one doesn't have.

 

network interface card. it's the port where you plug in a broadband internet connection. looks like a chunky phone modem port. (8 wires instead of four)

if the laptop is sufficiently old, it may not have an integrated NIC. oh well. carry on.

 

No it doesn't have NIC aka ethernet to most people. He's stuck with a DB9 connection.

 

It's not like he's transfering the library of congress. You can do a megabyte per minute with serial no problem, so it'll take him longer to drive to radioshack than to transfer what he needs. That's mostly cause MT isn't working yet, if it were, he could make it to radio shack in 45 seconds.

 

Ok, I got a null modem adapter, a 6' db9 cable, and a gender changer. I now have the two computers hooked to each other. When I tell my newer laptop to use com1, I get an error saying "unable to open COM1. Please check your port settings"

Any ideas?

 

We beat this to death last night (though I don't remember it so well.....) - I remember having these same frustrations back in the day. Two verions of hyperterm, and they won't talk to each other. The communication is fine, but won't send files....


Maybe try to get the win95 version of hyperterm on the xp machine! it could be they have different ways of "announcing" a file is being sent.