You used a laplink cable, which switched TX and RX lines in the same way as a crossover LAN cable does. I made my own laplink cable out of a normal parallel cable, swapping over the relevant wires at one end. It's still in a drawer somewhere here...
I'd be inclined to look out for a 4-port hub to link the two PCs. In fact, if your internet connection isn't already via a modem/router with a hub, I'd change to one - then either PC can use the internet connection regardless of what the other one's doing. You can set up a local area network using that, and move stuff between the two machines from either one.