Hi i am trying to conect two computer using a hub. one of the computers is already conected to the internet i am trying to set up a lan so both computers can share a internet connnetion. but for sme reason i can not do it. the computer with the internet is plugged into a modem via the usb port. the network card from that pc is connected to the hub and so is the second computer but i cant seem to get a connection of any sort. i have assigned IP addresses to both computer but nothing works

Since you are connecting the two computers via a hub and not a router, you need to configure NAT on the PC that is connected to the modem, to do the routing for you. I haven't done this on XP in a while, but you can run one of the wizards in "Network and Dial-up connections" to do this. I think it's actually called ICS in XP, but it's just another form of NAT anyway.

From my experience, xp's network setup wizard doesnt work. The only way i have been able to setup the computers is to just manually go and make sure they both have the same workgroup. Just go to start, then right click my computer and go to properties. Make sure that the computer name tab is selected and check the name and workgroup, to change either click the change button. Make sure both computers have the same workgroup name, then check your network to see if the computers are seeing each other. Hope some of this is of help to you.

check if you can ping the other computer. I found sometimes that the PC's can see each other but getting the Internet Connection Sharing is difficult. also Netbios over TC/IP needs to be enabled. but I'm only hazarding a guess as the setting up is pur luck at times