Direct Cable Connection for File Transfer from W-95 to W-XP

I thought this was going to be simple... My new PC has XP-Home Edition and I wanted to transfer several years' worth of files to it from my old Windows 95 machine. I bought a serial null modem cable and have spent hours trying to configure both machines. The barrier I keep hitting is that the Guest (W-XP) continues to display an error message that the Host (W-95) is rejecting my userid and passwork when attempting to connect. On the few times that they have connected, I get a message that the Host has disconnected from the PPP session

Because of the different operating systems, I've been forced to try to use two separate setup routines. I believe I have all the protocols, etc., selected properly, but who knows? I can't even figure out where, in Windows 95, I'm supposed to enter a userid and password that will be the test for the W-XP guest to meet

Any thoughts, anyone?

Thanks
Dan