hmm... i dunno about disableing the firewalls i leave mine up even though im behind a router.
have u tryed my briefcase in win98 for swapping the files i belive it can monitor changes across to folders and syncroncise with another location
i think xp has something simular called offline files where it keeps a copy of any files on a network drive for when it gets disconnected.
i prefer to run antivirus on all my machines just in case, although if you dont want to payout for another one put something like antivir (
www.free-av.com) or avast32 (
www.avast.com) its better than nothing and last time i checked those were both free.