New MacBook Pro, old one on last legs. Migration Assistant will not recognize the old MacBook [View all]

to do the transfer from the old to the new.

Old MacBook is 10.6.8, which theoretically should be able to use Migration Assistant.

I have connected the two with a direct ethernet connection using Apple's Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter. I also tried doing the connection wirelessly. Neither works at all. Migration Assistant just does not see the old computer, the grey wheel just spins forever, looking for "other sources."

Does anybody have any experience with this? Looking at the net, it appears to be a rather common problem.