My internet cable modem is is connected to a wireless router on the first floor. I connect to the internet in the basement using a wireless USB adapter on my laptop. My laptop is networked to another desktop in the basement using NIC's and a crossover cable. While I have no trouble accessing the internet with my laptop I can't figure out how to get shared access to it on my desktop using the crossover cable. I've tried installing ICS on my laptop twice with no success. The ICS setup wizard options do not ("fill in the connection that you use to access the internet") seem greared to doing this. I use the USB adapter to access the internet but when I use that input in the setup wizard it does not work. It doesn't seem that it should be that hard! Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

You setup ICS on a HOST P.C. You don't set it up on a client P.C. I take it that you are having trouble sharing files between XP and 98. Is that right? If so. Then do this. Run the network setup wizard from the XP CD on the 98 Computer. Then make sure you have the same logon on the XP P.C. as you do on the 98 Machine. The network you discribe as having is a P2P Lan network. ICS is used to set up one P.C. as the HOST, and the rest as clients. For your P.C. to be the HOST. It would have to have a direct connection to the internet. And then all the clients P.C.'s would connect to the internet through it. But you have a router that is performing this function and is the perfered method for your situation. So leave ICS alone. At least for now, unless your situation changes. ICS is primarily used to setup networks with USB modem or dial up networking and internet connection sharing.

Thanks for your reply. I must be missing something however. First both my laptop and the desktop are running Win98SE. There are only two computers involved. There is no computer upstairs where the cable modem plugs into the wireless router. I sit downstairs and receive the wireless signal on my notebook using a USB adapter. When I tried setting up ICS I designated that computer (my laptop) as the host and set up ICS on it (since it is the one receiving the internet). I do not understand how I can share the internet signal with my desktop which is located in another room in the basement. I tried using the USB adapter on it and the connection was so marginal I was hoping to share the internet over the crossover cable rather then buying another USB adapter ie use a USB adapter for each computer.

Oh. I see what you're saying. But ICS still won't work here. At least I don't think it will. I would think you would have to disable DHCP service on the router. Basically making it a switch. Then try to set up ICS on the one you were trying to set up as a HOST. I'm not 100% sure it will work like that. If it were me. I wouldn't change anything about how it was setup. I would keep the P2P configuration and let the router function as a router. Then I would buy or make a longer CAT5e cable from the modem to the router and just have the router down stairs and then you could just connect the desktop with a short CAT5e cable and then have the laptop wireless. Or visa versa. That would be the cheaps route. But by far the easiest route would be to buy a wireless card for the laptop and be done with it. Good Luck.