How to setup IP addresses for two machine to talk to each other
 

What is a good ip address that I can make up for a small network of two machines both of the machines has a ethernet card. I read that I could get an IP address from the Network information center but that is far beyond the scope of what I wish to do. I will not be using the internet for the network I'm using Damn Small linux

If you have two machines on a switch together,. then you can set them to a standard 2-host /31 network mask:

machine1: 192.168.100.2/31 (255.255.255.254)
machine2: 192.168.100.3/31 (255.255.255.254)

They will only be able to communicate with one another.

If you want room for more hosts, you can move to a larger more standard subnet like a standard /28 which gives you:

Netmask: /28 255.255.255.240
hosts: 192.168.100.1-14
gateway: 192.168.100.0
broadcast: 192.168.100.15

From DSL wiki.

ifconfig eth0 xxx.xxx.x.xx
ifup eth0
is the commands you'd use.
The xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is almost any of two numbers from private IP ranges.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142863
Is the common three subnets for IPv4. The subnets in these examples don't even have to be followed.

In reality if they don't have a gateway IP address or not connected to the internet, then you can use any two IP addresses you want. A gateway address would not be needed for your lan subnet just to talk between two computers.

There ways to go way beyond this too.

For 2 computers you could use a crossover cable, no switch needed, just use ssh/scp or rsync between them.