Hi,

I don't know too much about networking. I've had a peer to peer network running for a few months now, between two Windows XP computers, which had been working fine. The network card in both computers is a 3Com 3C900B, and the card has a slot for a USB cable and a peer to peer cable (I'm using the peer to peer).

Recently I got Internet Broadband, which requires a cable to be plugged into a USB port. So I plugged the cable into the USB port on the 3Com Card.

The problem is that I can either only be on the Internet or connected to my Peer to Peer network - only one at a time. I want to be able to do both at the same time.

So I bought a new network card, a US Robotics 10/100 PCI NIC TX, which has a USB port. I plugged the peer to peer cable into the 3Com card, and plugged the internet cable into the US Robotics card. But the problem still remains - I can only either be on the internet or my home network one at a time. (every time I want to change I need to manually disconnect one cable or the other from the back of the computer).

Is there any way I can use the internet and my home network at the same time?

Regards,

Chris

In XP try using the Network Wizard and create a network disk, also look at www.wown.com, everything you desire

Buy a 4 port router, forget the usb. Plug the WAN port on the router to the cable modem (most come with usb and eternet ports). Plug the computers into the ports on the router using regular network cable. Set the router to be a DHCP server on the LAN side and in the tcp/ip properties of your network cards on the pcs select obtain ip automatically. Sometimes you may need to reboot.

The card on your computer is either/or you can't use both at the same time, and the modem is the same way. It is either usb or ethernet not both at the same time.

You could keep your setup by buying an additional network card and using one for the peer to peer connection and the other for the modem connection and then share internet through ICS, but don't do that, get a router it is easier and much better. You won't have to keep the one computer on all the time so the other gets a connection and you get the protection of a NAT firewall in the router.

Thanks for that x86 and BoogieReb.

BoogieReb, do you recommend any 4 Port Routers in particular? I don't want one too expensive, if that's possible.

Thanks.

I like D-Link and LinkSys. I've had a bad experience with a Belkin, and have heard others complain about them. The wired versions are cheap, you're looking at under $50 if you shop around.