Hello, on a related note: er, I'm an absolute beginner to this so I won't be explaining my problem too clearly... sorry in advance ok, my com is connected like this: COM 1 COM 2 => router -> DSL modem well, there's a problem with COM 2... COM 1 works just fine and can 'read' the router and so go on the internet... ummm... COM 2 cannot... checked the cable... I think it's absolutely fine... hmmm... but the light for the it keeps flickering on the router, so that means it cannot 'read' it (I know I just repeated myself)... I'm using win98 on that com (actually, on both coms)... I go to Control panel>network and don't know what's it mean there... I see quite a few adaptors, I think I know which is supposed to be used but instead the com uses the PPP adaptor (shown in winipcfg) which seems to be the "Dial-Up Adaptor"... hmmm... but then again, the COM1 also uses the PPP adaptor and it works quite well, so actually don't really think my hypothesis is right... -___-;;; my friend says there may be something wrong with the connection (?!)... I think he's quite right since you need to get the COM2 to 'read' the router before anything would work, right? thanks!

do your winipcfg command and click on the drop down arrow, you should see your network card there, do a release and renew on it and choose show advanced.. compare the advance of this to your other computer, the wan ip should be the same. also check go to the properties of both pcs network cards and make sure all the settings are the same far. be slow and check everything you can find.