How to 'rsync' from one computer to another

[joe at actionline.com]

What is the procedure and syntax to 'rsync' all of a specific set of
directories and files from one computer to another that are on the same
network?

I have been burning DVDs on one computer and copying those files onto my
other computer(s), but when I download all those files, the permissions
are all changed to be non-writeable files and directories.

-r--r--r--  1 root root   9598 Feb  2 15:18 filenames
dr-xr-xr-x  5 root root   6144 Feb  2 21:06 directory-names

Is there some way to globally fix that?

Or would 'rsync' be a better solution?

I've never used 'rsync' and after reading the 'man' pages, I'm still
confused.

Is there a way to do this to preserve the file dates and only copy those
files that are newer (have more recent dates) onto the target system?