anyone care to tell me how to set up a small render farm in carrara? (5 pro)

you should probably state how many CPUs you have, whether any of them are dual core or dual processor, what the host computer hardware is and what sort of networking you have.

First load the render node software on the other machines in the network, you don't need to load it on the host machine. Make sure you also install any plugins on the networked machines also. If you are using XP, the networked nodes will probably connect to each other automatically. When it comes time to render, you must first save your file. Then open the render node software on each machine. Then set up a batch render and enable "network rendering" on the host machine and then press "launch".

Sounds so easy.... I have yet to get it to work, but... I have been busy at work alot, and have multiple different OS's to deal with...

Would one need to open the associated ports on antivirus/firewall software (i.e. XP's Windows Firewall) to allow the render nodes on the network to talk to each other? I ran into a proverbial wall while setting up my nodes... however, I used the default port range set by Eovia (5025, 5035, etc) which might have been part of the problem. Someone suggested I use a port range of 26000+.

any links to setting up a home network? oh, and I'll be using two p4 2.4g, and a g5 quad core 2.4g...

Try this: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,68763,00.asp The article is somewhat generalized, though it should get you started. A quick search on google should yield a plethora of more how-to documents.