Hooking two PC's together...

[RDS1955]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but here goes..
In the past, I've seen where folks "donate" their PC's processing power to various online sites, connecting online during late nite hours like to assist in the search for ET's, (S.E.T.I.) or to help some university or college or Company do medical research..(a) Does this actually work, and if so, how does it do it?... and if it is correct then, (b) is there any way to connect your own two or three PC's in your home network together and use the combined processing power in doing your Multimedia work?

TIA...

[simonsonjh]

I used SETI@Home for several years. The client application simply downloads a work unit, then sends back the analysis when complete.

I know if one video application able to utilize a group of networked computers, Vidomi.