Need your best advise as to the proper way to do the following.

In my home I will be signing up for cable internet access in the near future.
There are 2 computers in the house.
I would wish for them to both have access to the internet at the same time.
I do not care if I am able to access data off one computer from the other one.
My first assumptions are that I will need purchase two cable modems of the type required by the cable service we use, a splitter and additional cable to connect second computer. But not 100% sure on this.
Outside of that Im not sure what else will be required.
Could you describe for me what else if anything will be required without spending an enormous amount of cash :-)
Thankyou very much in advance.
Sincerely,
Zee

No 2nd cable modem.

You need:

1. Cable Modem. (external)
2. Linksys EtherFast 4-port router.
3. EtherNet 10/100 card x2 (each PC needs one)
4. CAT5 network cabling with RJ45 jacks.

Connections:
1. Cable Modem plugged into cable.
2. Linksys CAT5 wire to Cable Modem.
3. PC#1 CAT5 wire to Linksys.
4. PC#2 CAT5 wire to Linksys.

This provides the type of home networking you desire, and each PC can operate completely independently. You would be able to share files or printers if you wanted to, but you don't have to.

You will have 1 IP address assigned to your cable modem, and the Linksys serves as a type of firewall protection.

I suggest 3COM 3C905B-TX-NM ethernet cards. I do not recommend the Linksys ethernet cards, their software drivers have serious problems for some people.