Firewire to Firewire card....

[FL350innh]

Hi All,
I was wondering if anyone had used firwire to connect 2 computers together? Anyone? I'd like to be able to use both HD's for editing....

[einsi]

I have done it. I connected my desktop computer to my brothers laptop just to transfer some files. You will see the other computer just as a regular network computer, only with faster connection.

[FL350innh]

Einsi,
Thanks! That's what I thought... you where talking about two Intel (PC) based machines here correct? I noticed the firewire card had IP bound to it and that's what gave me the idea....

[Doggiedaddy]

I have multi machines connections via IEEE 1394 [firewire]with both P4s and AMDs units. All need to be running 2000 or XP Pro I believe but it is a great machine to machine connection with file transfer speeds pushing 300mbps in my case down from the 400 max but still fast as heck.

Dd

[FL350innh]

Works great!!!! I hooked both machines together and BINGO!!!!! Just like a regular network connection. Pretty fast, I move a few gigs last night worked really well! Thanks Einsie and Doggie Daddy!

[Machine514]

Great idea. Do you need a special firewire cable to do this? I know that you need a crossover network cable to connect two computers through an ethernet connection.

-Machine

[FL350innh]

Machine,
I'm using the FW cards to connect 3 machines together... They are all connected by off the shelf FW cables from Best Buy no Xover needed. I'm using WinME, XP and WIN2k. After I installed the FW cards they, by default created another network adaptor called "1394" bound it to TCP/IP. So, as long as the machines where shared you can see them just like a regular network connection. So far It's a rockin speedy connection and moving large AVI's is fast...

[ADS Ivan]

This works with most any OHCI FireWire card and does work with ANY FireWire cable (for most stability though, look for a TI Chipset). I believe it's been a feature built into Windows since Windows ME.

[dcsos]

I use a firewire connection for a network also but have the following caution:
I had the two computers connected thru a external harddrive-
That is- the standard 6pin went out one firwire port, into the hard drive., and then out to the other computer.
I found I had to be careful which computer to boot first because, whichever machine came up first..it world take the HARD DRIVE and make a letter for it..Talk about swapping drives!
also..the FIREWIRE network competed with my other standard network..and I had a lot of trouble with one machine swapping firwire for ethernet without permission from me...otherwise..ITS SOOOO FAST
and look ma no CARD required..
I think I might just throw out all the ethernet cards and go full firenet
What do others think? And does network stuff collide If you're doing file transfers, renders and authoring over the same PIPE?

[FL350innh]

DCSOS,
Yes, I see what you are saying about hooking two machines to one drive. Yep, thats Windows, The first machine to see the partition will claim it. Especially if you are running XP pro or Win2k pro, by default the security sub layer of the OS tries to secure them. If you want to go through all of the Windows voodoo you can set priority and routing between the cards for networking. Personally what I've done is to ditch (Disable) my two NIC cards and use the internet connection sharing feature to share the connection between my NIC connected machine and the other two machines. As for the FW cards, I'm using all AVIA based cheap cards ($14.00) with no problems at all. So far this is working fantastic! I exported a 1hr DV from Premiere over the FW to my second machines HD without error and it was fast! I've got the performance monitors running and see no problems as of yet....

[Machine514]

WOW! That's all great. One more question though...

Right now I have my first computer connected to the internet. Then it has a second NIC card in it and shares the internet conection to my second computer through a crossover cable.

Can you share an internet connection through firewire?

-Machine

[FL350innh]

WOW! That's all great. One more question though...

Right now I have my first computer connected to the internet. Then it has a second NIC card in it and shares the internet conection to my second computer through a crossover cable.

Can you share an internet connection through firewire?

-Machine

Yep, The OS sees the 1394 as another network adaptor... I'm doing it now... What OS are you using?

[ADS Ivan]

It's pretty easy to do, as these posts hint, it pretty much configures itself (acts just like a normal NIC). Note however that FireWire networking does have a distance limitation of 15' (a powered hub between the systems will help you get past this). Dispite it's limitations, FireWire networking is well worth it for the speed.

[Machine514]

Thanks all! I will look into it!

I am running WinXP Professional!

-Machine