Hi techie types, Ok maybee im missing somethink again, but here we go just the same. I have 2 computers on a home network,they are conected with just niks and a crossover cable, both have xp pro on them, works fine. I have a laptop that has M.E. on it , up till now when ever i wanted to put the laptop on the network i would unplug the cable from my second computer plug it into the laptop and away you go ...no problems there.. Ok so i thought well i dont realy understand routers,switches and allocating ip adresses and that sorta thing ,so i thought ,just by a second nik ($8) and another crossover cable ($10),whak it in and away you go , so i did that , now i have 2 niks in my main computer and it connects to both my second computer and laptop with 2 seperate crossover cables...now you know what in about to say next dont you ??? I seem to be only able to share my internet connection with only the laptop or the second computer at a time, not both at the same time, not sure why , but im gusing someone has the answer (in the advanced tab i can only select 1 or the other where it says share this connection), ok so if i cant do it that way , can i take the second network card from my main computer and put it into my second computer and have the internet conection go from my main computer to my second computer and then to my laptop??? wow hope all that makes sence... BTW,im on dial up not on ADSL, i know it will be a slow conection speed but thats not realy impotant ,i find it hard to use more than 1 computer at a time any way ...lol.. Thanks for your answers in adavance as always... Oz. Oh, please keep it simple for me....bit dumb here..lol

You should alter your network setup when using 3 computers or more. Two options here: 1. Buy a "hub" or a "switch" or a "router". Hub is the cheapiest with little features, a router is expensive but can 'manage' your network quite well. Connect every computer to the hub (or whatever you buy) with a normal (!!) cable and follow the XP-wizard "howto setup a home network". 2. Buy another NIC for your computer that manages the internet connection. This computer will then be connected with crossover cable to the other computers. The setup however is not easy for someone who doesnt know networking very well... So I suggest you go for option 1, and buy yourself a cheap hub. If you are planning a internet connection upgrade in the future (<2 years) you might even consider to buy a router.

Khalid i have option 2 now... thats what im trying to get to work.. how do i make it work?? Oz

Put the newly bought NIC in the XP -machine. Connect it to the laptop. Use the same networksettings on that NIC (workgroup etc). Then choose "bridge connections" in the "Network Connection"-section of your XP machine.

here's an install procedure for you: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/ics_xp you should use a hub and attach all of the pcs in the network to the hub, the host pc (the one connecting to the internet) connects to the internet through your modem. that is basically the setup I use, although in place of network cards I use phoneline adapter cards. setup is the same. I don't thing you will be able to use 2 nics in the host pc and connect to the other two pcs vaer easily. use the hub,Al