> downloaded the files from the FTP (/netbsd-1.6-release/tar/src...) and
> extracted them to a folder on my desktop computer, however: my laptop has no

> Yes, I considered that, but the ISO is huge! 540mb splits roughly into
> 375 floppies =P.

If I understand you correctly, you downloaded the source tarballs from 
ftp://ftp.au.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-1-6/tar_files/src/ and 
unpacked them on to a CDR.

For installation you probably want the files from somewhere like
  ftp://ftp.au.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.6/i386/
or
  ftp://releng.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-1-6/200303090000/i386/
specifically the .tgz files in binary/sets (without extracting them)

For using them in installation you can `cut' them up with split(1) on a 
GNU/Linux machine or your friends NetBSD machine and use the "floppy" option 
for installation media. (Though as mentioned before this will probably be 
long and tedious. :-)

Probably the best option would be to attach your laptop harddrive to the 
desktop to copy them on to a dos partiton, as Chuck said, and install from 
"unmounted fs".

More info in 
http://www.mclink.it/personal/MG2508/nbsdeng/netbsd.html
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/
ftp://releng.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-1-6/200303090000/i386/INSTALL.html
if you haven't been through them already.

Cheers
David