allright heres my question, i have two computers. i want to connect them to each other with as fast of a data tansfer between them as i can possibly get, without putting an OS on computer2's HD, or using any of its space. both computers have slow processors, and very small HD's. the reason for doing this is i want to use them combined as a server. so is it possible to do so without using an ethernet connect. maybe use of a USB, or COM or printer port. or even connecting the ide from computer2 to computer1? any suggestions would be much appreciated thanks

This is impossible. The 2th machine don't know how to write stuff on his HD.
Why don't you put both HDs in one Machine and use "one" Server.

the best choise that comes to my mind, is installing a very small linux distro on the 2nd comp with just basic networking && portmapper && nfsd and then using the partitions over NFS in a LAN environment.. But I guess thats not an option based on your conditions..

As the previous poster said, easier to just hook em up in a single machine..

you can boot both machines from a live cd to save hd space, then enable usb networking.that way you can use all the capasity from your hd:s.

Yeah, this could work, but youd need a decent amout of ram to get it fast enough.. Atleast 32mb.. 64 better.. relevance depends on how you define "slow computer with small hdd"

the 1st computer has a distro on it, the second i wana keep free and use the HD for swap (because its on a 200mhz processor) and still use the 2nd computers processor =/ so you think about the only way possible is by using a live cd to enable soemthing such as distcc on the second computer?

excuse me, but if you use comp2:s hdd2 for swap for comp1, what have you got left to use cpu2 for? d:

i just wana ink as much speed as i possibly can from both computers

**EDIT
also the s3econd computer has about 64mb of ram, im not exactly sure what processor it is, it just claims its a pentium at boot.

you seem to be forgetting something.. even gigabit ethernet isn't anywhere near fast enough for a reliable swap... and 200Mhz machines probably have 10, or 100 megabit ethernet....
there are some network cards that have a bootable bios
look up pxe complient NICs
then you'd have to set up a bootp/dhcp/nfs server. i've never actually succeded yet, because i don't have any pxe nics, but it's a thought... then you could setup a diskless machine

frieza is right, a 100M or 1G ethernet connection won't even have the speed for a network mounted swap and other viable options (USB, Parallel, Serial) are slower still not to mention usually trickier to set up.

The PXE setup might be a good way to get connected (over ethernet) but that would have to be set up to boot some kind of networkable OS over the network. Although mounting a swap partition over the network isn't going to add performance there are distributed computing/clustering options available. Unfortunatly, unless you already have PXE and clustering down it's probably more hassle than it's worth to get a 200Mhz machine hooked into another computer to use it's speed or disks.

i somewhat agree with darin on that... although I personally would try getting those machines setup with pxe or clustering as a learning tool, simply because it would be preferable to expend a 200MHZ machine than a brand new amd64

you're right, i was so tired las tnight i didnt think about the fact that swap over network isnt gonna really do anything. so im gonna put it in the first box...so basically theres no way for me to utilize the second computers processor? also on the case of using a livecd to maybe set the other box as networkable, would knoppix come with everything i would need to do this?

Take a look at ClusterKnoppix and Quantian. These are two Knoppix variants which feature OpenMosix. These have the ability to migrate running programs from one system to another (within the same cluster). You can run your better computer as a graphical workstation, while the second computer runs in plain text mode to conserve memory.

anohter solution, if you have money to sink into anew hard drive is use the less powerfull computer as a file server, i do that with an old 100MHZ pentium computer

Sounds like you want to create a virtual server out of two older and slower computers.

Old hard is not sufficient for this purpose. Virtual servers and cluster servers require more then what hand me down PCs have inside.

I am in agreement with the other posters here about the intended hard disk usage you wish to use.

My suggestion is that you set up the slower PC as a router, firewall or dare I suggest this...a Tarpit.

Then you should think about purchasing a new or even used HD which is larger then the ones currently installed.