Can be done, but not reccommended.

The WUs must be uploaded by the same computer that downloaded them.

I don't quite remember what the exact procedure of transfering WUs is, but as a general rule, it's not reccommended that people do this.

Thanks for the replies.

On access limits at uni, the basic limit is 450MB per month, with the possibility to purchase more... however, I would rather not risk using up all of my access for a month (a lot of it is already used up in the normal course of my PhD). As for location, I won't name the uni, but it is in Australia, and while the access is fast, it is not quite the mindboggling speed you mention.

On the OS-specific WUs issue, there is no major hassle, since the laptop is dual-boot linux and windows (BOINC is installed on linux only, at the moment).

I understand the issues regarding possibility of crackers, etc, so perhaps I should clarify what I was hoping to do. I want to have the laptop behave as a middle-man, so my laptop would download WUs at home, then when connected to the desktop, the desktop would "download" from the laptop. After completion, the desktop would "upload" to the laptop, which would then upload to the server when at home. So in effect, the laptop would only be an intermediate server.

If this is not possible, I will simply limit the amount of work done on the desktop so that I keep control of internet access (meaning less work done than would be done under the method I described above).