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Ok when networking comes into play I become a retard so basically I need to know what is the simplest way to connect two computers to the internet using one cable modem. My dad's computer is already connected to the cable modem and is up and running but I'm home from college and I want to hook mine up also. Do I absolutely need a router or will a hub do? Or can I just use a cat5 crossover somehow?

a hub, router and switch should all work. If you have 2 NICs then a crossover cable works too. That's what I use. You just have to enable Internet Connection Sharing.

BTW, check out tonight's Friday Night Topic

crazybus wrote:

BTW, check out tonight's Friday Night Topic

You could get some good ideas there...

wagsbags: A hub or switch will only work if the ISP will let you use two internet IP addresses. If they only give you one, you'll have to share the connection, which will involve a router.

And remember, a router can be as simple as a computer with two NIC's installed along with some proxy software. Or you can just head to CompUSA and pick up their $40 router (or whatever the price is these days).

well I don't really want to notify the isp since I'm only going to do this for like a week now and 2 weeks at the end of the summer. So if I use a hub will I be able to connect to the internet with both computers but just not at the same time? Because that's all I really need...

Yes, and it can be easy. I do it with three pc's: 2xWin2K, 1xWinXP. I bought ($80 2 years ago) a four port switched router that does dhcp (dynamic protocol addressing which uses one external ip address and gives each pc its own internal ip address). I plug the cable modem into the WAN port and each network cable into a port. Then I run the internet connection wizard for each machine and pick connect through "lan". For the pc's to see each other and share files, put them both in the same workgroup (rclick my computer > Network Identification > Properties).

A switched port may be too expensive for the short term, but I was told that it hides your pc's ports from the internet, making it slightly more protected from intrusion. You can log into the router via a web enabled interface and change some settings.

A router would be cheaper, but you would need to do some different setup, as crazybus and kevin say.

boobyne: You are using a router. You can call anything that takes one internet IP and shares the connection with many computers a router. wagsbags doesn't want to use a router since it would cost money.

wagsbags: It depends on your ISP. Most cable internet ISPs record the MAC address of the network card in the computer that has leased the networked IP. Sometimes as long as you release the IP from the currently connected computer, you can then hook up a new computer (which then has a new MAC address). Other times, the MAC address stays on record at the ISP for a few days and no other MAC address at your location can obtain an IP.

So, like I said, it depends on your ISP.

Well with my adsl I can connect it to another computer that's not on my network, and that pc gets a new IP. When I hook it back up to my main rig I have the same IP as I had originally. I think my ISP allows two IPs but then I also get 15hours of dialup so that makes 3 . I guess the cheapest is to use 3 NICs and a crossover cable if you have that stuff laying around.