Crossover cable query

an ethernet crossover able will indeed do what you want. the way to check is to look at both ends of the cable, and if you see a pair swapped (eg white-orange and orange swapped for white-green and green) between the two ends, it's a crossover. if the two ends are in the same order, it's a regular "straight-through" cable. if they are flipped, aka rolled, it's not for network use at all.

Once you cable them together, give them both addresses on the same subnet, but not the exact same address. for example:
iMac A:
IP address: 192.168.100.2
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
gateway: 192.168.100.1

iMac B:
IP address: 192.168.100.3
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
gateway: 192.168.100.1

Even though you have no gateway, it shouldn't matter. you can also put the opposite iMac's address in for the gateway.

Once you've done this, you can test for connectivity by opening up terminal and typing:
ping 192.168.100.3
if on iMac A, and if you get returns, it is working.

then share up the drive(s), and you should be god to go.

With the G3 iMac and later, you should not need to get a Crossover Cable,
instead a standard Ethernet data transfer cable should work just fine.

The "new world" Macs can automatically use the standard cable, according
to several points of reference I have read (and do not have a handy link to.)

Since both machines do not have FireWire ports, the easiest means to
move files between Macs is not available to you. Target Disk Mode and
a FireWire cable are superior since you don't need to file-share to use it.

But that doesn't help right now, does it?! 🙂

With the G3 iMac and later, you should not need to get a Crossover Cable...

Sorry but that is incorrect. The auto-MDIX Ethernet ports were not introduced to iMacs until the iMac G4 1 GHz model.

KB 42717, Apple products that require an Ethernet crossover cable

The Belkin line of cables and adapters sold by the major retailers (Office Depot, Staples, CompUSA, etc.) are high-profit items, costing the buyer much more than he needs to spend. If there are any computer stores (doesn't need to be a Mac dealer) in your area, check their prices for a crossover cable.

here is an example of the wiring:
http://www.en-consult.ca/cat5.gif

notice there are some elements which are solid colors, and some are stripes. the striped ones are the ones I called white-orange and white-green.

as for where to make the network settings, I have no idea. Haven't used anything besides OS X in ages, especially OS 8. I would imagine some googling would bring you the answer here was the top hit for my search:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106657

Look for the "Crossover" description/type/specs, as "Patch" is wired straight.

...Ron

Thanks for the refresher... I have a cross-over cable and never needed it;
and now I really don't need it with the newer hardware I've primarily used.
The older Macs I had seldom were used with ethernet; and one DSL
router I had said it had to be used with a crossover cable, but found it
didn't need one. It just automatically worked. Been using G4s since.

[ Apple Products that Require an Ethernet Crossover cable ]

Yes, I found it was still bookmarked in my browser from two years ago.