Linux ethernet over 1394

[Michael Whapples <mikster4@msn.com>]

Hello,
This might be slightly off topic, but if someone could point me in the
direction of suitable information (if not answer the question) I would
be grateful.

I currently have my desktop running Linux (ubuntu). This machine is
connected to the internet. I connect my laptop through a firewire
connection to my desktop to allow access to the internet (and some
services I run on the desktop, for file storage as the desktop has a
significantly larger hard disc). The laptop is setup with dual boot of
windows XP and linux (ubuntu). This seems to work fine in linux on the
laptop, no problems with connecting to the internet), and sometimes
works with windows. I say sometimes as it seems to work fine if I boot
the laptop into windows then connect the firewire cable. should this
cable be connected while the machine is booting (and I think if it is
disconnected and re-connected while the machine is running) it fails to
connect properly. Telling windows to repair the connection reports that
windows cannot repair the connection because it is unable to clear the
arp cache. If I clear the arp cache manually (command arp -d *) it still
comes up with the message about being unable to clear the arp cache when
repairing. Also at this time text consoles will be having error messages
saying "RX: sender nodeID failure" with some codes as well (it also
seems to say it is coming from module eth1394).

What might be going on here? Which is at fault, Linux or Windows or the
combination? How can I solve it? From what I have found out it seems
like eth1394 may not be proper ethernet, as I was planning to use DHCP
on the connection, but DHCPCD (I think that is the linux DHCP server
app, it definitely was the server app I was using) said that it couldn't
use the connection as it wasn't ethernet. Therefore I am using static
IP.

Is there any other way to do this, should it prove to be impossible? Try
and minimise the cost to me, I have a wireless USB card I could use with
the desktop, and the laptop also has wireless. Unfortunately I would
need to learn about wireless networkin, and I would think there are more
security issues as I live in a flat and I can detect other wireless
systems nearby with my laptop. Note I have no metwork routers/wireless
routers.

Thanks in advance,
Michael Whapples