Network? Hub? What am I trying to create?

[Torn Rose]

I want to have my laptop connected to my desktop, and have all my external hard drives connected to the desktop, so from my laptop (which is my main machine) I can access all the hard drives and move files etc.

I am not wanting to use the laptop to run a program on the desktop or anything other then wanting access to the hard drives, I am just wanting a easier way of finding and moving files as I need them instead of plugging one hard drive into the laptop and then back into the desktop etc.

Is this a “network” or a “hub” or what, and what is the easiest and fastest way to do this?