I’ve not tried this yet, because i only have two macs, one being a laptop and the other not requiring a high-speed interconnect; but i may give it a go some time.

[www.macosxhints.com]

Network Machines via FireWire

If you need to connect two Macs running Panther, but you don’t have an Ethernet cable handy, don’t sweat it — you can use your trusty FireWire cable instead. Here’s how:

Open the Network preference pane, click on Configure, and then select Network Port Configurations from the Show pull-down menu. Click on the New button, give the new configuration a name (FireWire, for example), and then select Built-in FireWire from the Port box (see “Network via FireWire”).

Repeat these steps on the second Mac. When you’re done, plug the FireWire cable into each machine, and make sure that the Personal File Sharing option (in the Sharing preference pane) is selected on both machines. To share files between the machines, switch to the Finder, select the Network icon in the sidebar, and then click on the Servers icon. You should see the other machine’s name in the server list. Double-click on the computer’s name and enter a valid user name and password. You’re now connected to the other machine.