sharing on two xp pro, sp2 setups

I know there are lots of different posts on the issue, but is there some sort
of simple to use process that helps me accomplish the following:

I would like to have my desktop house the primary copies of

-my documents (separate drive for this)
-my favorites used in IE (wherever that is usually stored)

I understand that there is a "synchronization" feature in XP, which is
supposedly better than my old "briefcase" solution that I was using
previously. How do I set this up?

More specifically, I have a notebook that I want to use those files, and
then have any changes synch together. I also have a separate external backup
drive on the desktop, and I have a briefcase on that linked to the files. Is
there a way to set that to be a "synchronizing" spot, as opposed to going to
the briefcase and manually updating it all the time (on the external drive,
the receiving side never updates the files, of course, so it's always just a
"pull" down to it via the briefcase right now)

thanks.
--
Boris