Glad to hear you're getting there...The ethernet connection, what exactly do you want to do? I have a similar setup except that XP is on another desktop, not a laptop, and I don't always want to connect to it. I also don't particularly want the XP machine to see the Linux machine, I just want the linux machine to be able to read and write files to a swap folder on the XP machine. This just involves MOUNTing the relevant folder on the XP machine to the linux filesystem. I do it as follows, someone may post a better way.

1) for the LAN setting on the XP machine, assign a static IP address, eg 192.168.0.2. Also for the linux eth0 setting, eg 192.168.0.1 - in FC2 this can be set in the eth0 window of network configuration, presumably something similar in SUse.
2) if the XP machine is firewalled, allow communication from the linux machine address
3) share the XP swap folder on the network. Assign "everybody" read and/or write access as appropriate
4) mount the XP swap folder to the Linux filesystem. I use the command
mount -t smbfs -o username=<your_username_on_XP> //192.168.0.2/<rest_of_path_to_swap_folder(not including "C:")> /mnt/<linux_folder_name>/
This should mount the XP folder to the relevant subfolder in /mnt on linux (create the subfolder first). You can now browse /mnt/<folder>, read files, write files if you've given permission for that on theXP share setup, etc.
5) Do whatever you want to do
6) umount /mnt/<foldername> to lose the folder from the linux filesystem
7) unshare the XP folder to keep things secure on the XP machine

Okay long time no hear, sorry some of us do work
lol... Anyways VERY important to get these avi's converted to DVD format ANY IDEAS????

http://tovid.sourceforge.net/

This will Convert the avi's to DVD compliant mpegs.

I can't find my notes on the use of it - otherwise, I'de give you a head start.
If I run across them later, I'll post more.

-tw

Its working Umm I think??? lol it says that its probing the files for information, but its said that for about an hour now??? Anything more user friendly by chance? Im not complaining but Im not sure if its working there fore kinda looking for backups

If using a tovid command line like:

does not work, have you tried using the command:
???

Maybe someone has found a better way, but in my search for converting
avi's to dvd complient mpg's, I stopped looking once I found tovid. There is
anather way I know of, but its quite a bit more complicated. (using mplayer,
tcrequant, & mplex - yes multiple steps.)
Let us know.
-tw

Okay so it crashed me. lol I had to reinstall. And now faced with ALOT more problems than originally arose. Im not complaining I think it was my fault. Okay anybody know where to find A DELL e772c driver or at least mazbe the settings so that it works with suse 9.1. Or possiblz the settings for a tzpical dell keyboard to keep from tzping Y instead of Z and vice versa.....Or anzthing that makes a friggin dell work....Tovid was working great but I over whelmed the poor system and it just kinda blew up. Like I said mz fault but these problems are getting to be a bit more of a hassle than the norm Thanks in advance once again. The Monitor thing is reallz the pressing issue...And how can zou tell which NVIDIA card you actuallz have_

Not sure what "monitor thing" your refering too. Expand on that. But if you type ' lspci ' and find your
video card on that list, that should help in finding the chipset.
Since your using Suse, have you gone into Yast and check what keyboard it has you using? Try
that first, as mapping keyboard stuff takes some time (atleast for me).

Also, when you post, if you try somthing & it didn't work, let us know what you did and the results.
The more specific you are, the easier/helpful people can help.

-tw