Little Question

[Optrix]

Ok i've never used this forum before so please don't shout, when i have probably neglected to read the small print somewhere and ask a dumb question.

I have 2 computers a windows desktop and a windows laptop, both with XP Home. The deal is i have a 3rd Gen iPod 15 Gig, i have about 7 Gig of songs and it is currently sinked to my laptop. However i get/download most of my songs on my desktop as this has the net connection.

Is there anyway to copy the music off of my iPod and put it on the desktop? Otherwise i'm gonna have to burn about 16 CD-RW to copy all the music from my laptop to my desktop, which will be slow and boring.

The reason i sinked to my laptop is cos i took it around to friends and borrowed CD and ripped the tracks using iTunes for windows, however my desktop has both iTunes and Music Match, but now has about 400 songs less. Plus i've sorted out all of the tags on the Laptop as well so i dont want to lose all that work.

Can someone help me, i know you can copy songs off of the iPod for Mac, but is there free way to do this for WINDOWS?

[jjunker]

here's the "how to do what you are asking thread"
http://ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4719

or you could buy set up a wireless network - that's what I've done, so I can actualy rip songs from 2 computers and have them saved on the same drive. Pretty sweet.

[Optrix]

I saw a bluetooth USB thing for about ?20 on ebuyer today, could i transfer songs from on PC to the other if i had 2 of those?

[jjunker]

Originally posted by Optrix
I saw a bluetooth USB thing for about ?20 on ebuyer today, could i transfer songs from on PC to the other if i had 2 of those?

not seeing it, I couldn't tell ya. What I have is a Lynksis Wireless hub. How it works:

You run your Internet connecting directly into it from the wall, then you have a few options:

Plug a wire into it for your desktop access, or if you have a wireless card in your desktop, you can access your connection that way as well.

For your laptop, you can do the same thing... if you have a wireless card inside your laptop, or a card that you can put into one of those slots, then you can be wireless up to 100 feet or whatever your range on your hub is.

Do a quick search on wireless or "wi-fi" home networking - it's easier than it looks.

[SlutMonkey]

You don't have to spend a lot of money to set up a small network for just transferring files.

If your PCs have Ethernet ports, you can buy a cross-wire Ethernet (RJ-45 cable) to link your two computers. You can get such a cable in any computer store for around ?5. Note that it's not a normal Ethernet cable, but a cross cable (it has metal ends).

When you have connected the two computers, go to START > My Network places > Set up a home or small office network and follow the setup wizard.

If everything is properly set up, you should be able to transfer files at about 9 to 11 megabytes per second (depending on file size) if you have standard 100Mbit network cards.

Wifi is of course a more elegant solution, I use it myself... But it will set you back about ?100 (for a Wifi router+PC card) or even more if you want the 54Mbit 802.11g standard.

I use the Ethernet cross-wire solution when I'm at my friend's place copying Divx movies. It's dirty and cheap, and works like a charm.

[StrangeRanger]

Or the best solution yet...is to use PodUtil (http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/download.php) . It's free, it works with iTunes and you don't need anything else!
j