TCP/IP over 1394 (firewire)

[reader4]

I couldn't find a helpful post on this topic, so I apologize if my question is naive:

Has anyone found a way to connect an XP machine (laptop) to a linux machine (desktop) using TCP/IP over firewire? At some point, I think there was concern about compatibility with the XP and linux methods of IP over 1394, but I have not been able to find much recent information.

Some background: I have a linux (CentOS 4.4) desktop that I use for most of my work, but I give a lot of talks and work on my laptop when at home or away from my desk. My laptop had a recent HDD upgrade and I would like to transfer the pertinent information from my desktop to my laptop. Better still would be an rsync of the two so that their directory structures were the same, but that is another issue. The real problem is that my desktop resides on a very closed network that my laptop does not have access to. I can connect a firewire cable to both, but that is where the trouble begins.

The relevant 1394 modules are installed and running in linux (lsmod shows ieee1394, ohci1394, raw1394) as running. 'modprobe -v eth1394' only returns "install /bin/true" - and I am not sure exactly what that means. When connecting the two computer by cable, I get:

"ieee1394: Node added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00e0b8020100bf8d]
ieee1394: Node changed: 0-00:1023 -> 0-01:1023
ieee1394: unsolicited response packet received - no tlabel match
ieee1394: Node resumed: ID:BUS[0-01:1023] GUID[00e0b8020100bf8d]"

If I look at the 1394 connection in XP, I see only that "TCP/IP is not enabled for this connection."

So, is there a way to make this happen, or am I barking up the wrong tree. Any ideas how I can make it happen?

Thanks in advance!

[reader4]

OK, maybe someone can help me now... this seems like a more general networking issue. First, and update:

ieee1394 modules are all installed and running, including eth1394

# lsmod | grep 1394
eth1394 24200 0
raw1394 33772 0
ohci1394 34968 0
ieee1394 103476 4 sbp2,eth1394,raw1394,ohci1394

modprobe.conf contains the line "alias eth1 eth1394" and I added an ifcfg-eth1 file to /et/sysconfig/network-scripts. I can see the configured device in the system-config-network, which is shown as inactive, so

# ifup eth1
eth1394 device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.

# ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
SIOCSIFADDR: No such device
eth1: unknown interface: No such device
SIOCSIFNETMASK: No such device
SIOCGIFADDR: No such device
SIOCSIFBROADCAST: No such device
eth1: unknown interface: No such device

What is going on here and what might I be able to do to fix it? I had no problem setting this up in Unbuntu on a different machine. I found a post of the identical problem (no replies) from 2005 using RedHat (ie, CentOS) as well... coincidence?