Connect 2 PC's via USB

Your router is the headquarters of your network. Use an Ethernet cable-not USB cables to connect the computers to the available switch ports of your router.

The next task involves folder sharing. In Windows Vista use Windows Explorer to right-mouse on the folders you want to share with the Ubuntu computer. (I'd suggest that you only share the Desktop and put files there that need to be shared by the Ubuntu computer.) (For security reasons, I don't much like turning on shares on Windows computers-particularly if the computer is used at a hotspot.)

Ubuntu is good at looking at Windows folder shares, but not the other way around. Sorry, but I can't solve that problem for you. Windows Vista probably has no way to look at Ubuntu folder shares.

Once the sharing has been set up, use the Places menu and locate Network to see what your Ubuntu computer can find.

As for your question on finding your way around, check with a local book store and pick up a copy of a help manual on Ubuntu. The community forums at www.ubuntu.com is a good way to find things out. Also check out the magazines in the book store that are focused on Ubuntu.

Thank you David. I had a feeling the only way was via the router.
About the peculiar behaviour of Vista; would I have the same problem with XP? I could try and downgrade Vista to XP.

Obviously if I replace Vista with Ubuntu it would take care of that problem, but then I am left with some Windows based reference applications that I need; is there a solution?
Leon

Unfortunately Windows XP can't "see" Linux partitions that are formatted with ext2, ext3 or ext4 which most Linux versions use--particularly Ubuntu that uses ext4 in a clean install or ext3 in an upgrade from an earlier version. Windows XP and Vista use NTFS for the disk partitions which Ubuntu can read and write to with no problem, but Windows XP and Vista can't read or write to Ubuntu. So "downgrading" Vista to XP is not going to help on this problem. It might be best to keep the current arrangements of Ubuntu and Windows Vista.

One work-around is to just use a standard USB flash drive to save documents written on the Ubuntu computer back to the Windows computer. Just make sure that OpenOffice.org documents written on the Ubuntu computer are first saved in Microsoft formats such as .doc, .xls, .pps, .ppt, etc. so that Windows can use them. (Ubuntu can use them either in that format or the open document formats and many other formats as well.) Pictures in .jpg format or documents in .pdf format can be read in either computer environment. Flash drives usually are sold in FAT format that both computers can read and write to.

At present on one of my Ubuntu computers I have installed the application VirtualBox. Then inside of that I've installed Windows XP. Once done I can now install Windows applications. It's inconvenient and somewhat annoying to run applications that way, but its a workable way for me to avoid using my old Windows XP computer just to run one program. VirtualBox is an Ubuntu client that allows virtual operating systems such as Windows XP to run inside of Ubuntu while using the hardware of the computer. (Ubuntu takes care of that.) That computer also goes on the road with me so it's effectively two computers in one.

Hi,

Just one comment : if you have OpenOffice.org documents in Ubuntu you can also open them without problems in MS Windows by installing Openoffice.org in MS Windows. OpenOffice.org and Microsoft office can co-exist without problems in MS Windows.

So no need to export from an open document format (odf) to a closed proprietary format (.doc, .xls, .ppt) and to duplicate documents.

Regards

Thank you for your comments. On the Vista I am using OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Firefox and I have used an USB Flash for casual transfers, I was hoping for a direct connection for larger files, eg. music.
My original question was prompted by a reference in the Vista "Help and Support" folder to a "crossover cable for a direct connection which does not need a hub, router or switch".

I have connected the two PC's via the router; the Ubuntu screen found the "workgroup" on the Vista, then says:
"unable to mount location" and "failed to retrieve share list from server".
The network screen in Vista only shows the Leon-PC and the router, just as David predicted; is an improvement possible?

Thank you all.

Somehow the sharing isn't completely turned on I suspect. Check the Windows computer's Control Panel for a general sharing utility (Print and File Sharing) and turn on file sharing.

The USB crossover cable was meant to connect two Windows computers with file sharing turned on in both computers. It assumes that both computers boot into Windows properly, the firewall and anti-virus products on each don't block file sharing, etc., etc.

Between an Ubuntu computer and a Windows computer I doubt the USB crossover cable will be of much use. Windows can't "see" the Ubuntu computer and the Ubuntu computer probably can't use the USB crossover cable without a specialized piece of software. You can try it but I doubt it will work that way.

if you want you can use a crossed ethernet cable...
But why ? please use your router (is a router with more than one ethernet port?) to connect the 2 pc is very easy

pc A) ip 192.168.1.1
pc B) ip 192.168.1.2

Might be you need to specify gateway

Install winscp in Windows http://winscp.net/eng/docs/lang:it
and openssh-server in Ubuntu... use winscp from windows to transfert data...

Hope this helps

Thank you David, Quynh and Marco. Your expertise and knowlegeable comments are invaluable, I am more confident now to tackle the problem and I will also try the Virtual Box.
By the way, I managed to download "Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04" (a pdf file) and another manual on the Ubuntu site.
Thank you all.