Individual files or messages can be sent via e-mail. I have two separate e-mail accounts I use exclusively to transfer files from my laptop at work to my laptop at home. When I retrieve messages I can then easily retrieve the file from work or home from just the home or work specific e-mail account.
Another way is by using removable media combined with varius laptop peripherals. Floppy disks can be used, but are often too small, so zip drives with older zip disks with 100 MB or newer ones with 250 or 750 MB might work. Older laptops usually don't have a CD Reorder, but you can buy external CD recorder with a USB connector so you can write your laptop files to CD and then copy them to the other computer. Another choice would be an external hard drive, which keep coming donw in price and increasing in capacity. A final choice is key drives like the USB Flash Drive, which are very easy to use and range in capacity from 32MB to 2GB.
Direct network connection can work if both computers have network cards and are attached to a network. You can copy files from the laptop to a network directory on a file server. Then repeat the process for the desktop, copying the files from the server to your new computer. If you do not have access to a server or two network ports for the computers, you can directly connect the computers together with an ethernet crossover cable.
If both computers have an infared ports files can be transferred between them at data rates for version 1.0 of IrDA of up to 115 kbps and version 1.1 introduced in 1994 of up to 4 Mbps within the confines of a room (approximately 5 m to 10 m).
You can use Direct Cable Connection in Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP. You must have a bi-directional serial or parallel port cable, or a null modem cable. A neat program that can be used in conjunction with direct connection of the two computers is LapLink. They have a number of products for file copy, file synchronization, remote control, and other PC to PC functions. For more extensive file synchronization, manipulation and remote control capability, you will need a program like LapLink®, pcAnywhere or other 3rd party applications.
