I have just moved into a student house, and we have just had a cable modem installed. we already have a network installed with an ethernet hub, i have just bought a broadband router with 4 ethernet connections, 1 WAN connection and 1 Uplink connection. Ive connected the modem into the WAN port with RJ45 cable, ive also placed the connection from this PC into the Ethernet connection on the router, but i cant get a connection this way. I can however get a connection by plugging the modem straight into the computer. Each computer is set to get IP from the routers DHCP, and we can share files using the router. Any suggestions on how to share the connection?

Some of this depends on your ISP, but in general the router must get the WAN IP address from you ISP voa the cable modem, and the router must have an IP address on the internal network (LAN). Open the router management interface. There should be a tool in there somewhere to test the router's connections to the WAN and LAN. You have to choose an ip address range for your LAN. For example, if you choose 192.168.0.0 as the network, then the router could be 192.168.0.1 (I think Lynksys routers use 192.168.0.254 by default). Anyway, enable the router's DHCP function and reboot the router. Then reboot the pc's connected to the router to make sure they all get an IP address on the same network.

Some ISPs require a MAC address to be registered but since you were able to connect each PC separately to the modem and have it work I don't think that's the problem. As suggested above, check the router settings. Usually the default settings ("Assign IP Address automatically" and "Use DHCP server for WINS resolution")will work just fine. If the ISP requires a MAC address copy down one from one of the PCs that works and input this into the MAC field in the router configuration screen. If the router's WAN port has AUTOMUX support you shouldn't need a crossover cable, but if your router isn't connecting to your ISP this could be the problem. On each client set the TCP/IP settings to - Assign IP Address automatically - Use DHCP Server for WINS resolution Disable the clients' firewalls (the router has a firewall) and see if they can connect now. If you still want to use those firewalls set them to recognize IP range 192.168.0.1 through 192.255.255 as "local" or "trusted". The XP firewall has a checkbox for the type of LAN it's connected to, iirc. You may have to change that to "Connect to the Internet through a LAN with router" or however it's worded.