hello.... I am trying to connect all my 3 computers at home to the internet using ADSL modem and hub. I am not sure about the kind of the cables that I need to hook .(regular or cros cable) as I see it , I need 2 network adapters on my gateway, and one of any other computer. then use a regular cable to the hub ,and another one from the gateway to the dsl modem. am I right?? then on the internet connection, enable ics ,BUT: can I share the connection for all the others computers?? how? do I need to check the box on : "enable internet connection sharing " and choose for "local are network " ??? I have some mess in my head and I need someone to help me with all those settings. many many thanks in advance.

No. You do not need 2 Network adapters in your Gateway. You need: 1 HUB/Switch with an uplink port (also called crossover port). The HUB/Switch MUST support a 10 MBit connection (for the DSL Modem). So its best to use one which supports 100 and 10 MBits. 4 normal RJ45 Cables 3 Network adapters (1 per PC) Connect all 3 PCs to the HUB/Switch with the normal cables. Connect the DSL-Modem to the HUB/Switch with a normal cable but use the uplink port. If you don't have an uplink port just use a normal port but a crossed cable. On the gateway: Setup the LAN and the DSL-Connection over the same network adapter - that should now work perfectly! Use the internet connection sharing just like you said. Everything should work perfectly now and you don't have that mess with 2 network adapters in your gateway.

Another thing good thing about doing it that way: If your Gateway is switched off, and any of the other 2 PCs quickly need to use the internet you no longer have to switch the gateway on. They can no dailin themselves without going over the gateway. Of cause only one of the 3 can be dailed in at a time, and if 2 or more PCs need to use the internet the gateway has to dailin. But as I already said: if only one needs a connection the gateway doesn't have to be running.

There's also antoher Ilegal way to solve thisproblem: You can hack/tweak your ADSL modem to make it an ADSL ROUTER. There are some documents on internet which clearly describe how to tweak your ADSL modem. Once it is tweaked fill on all the pc's gateway's the ip adress of the ADSL ROUTER and you'r finished. Because once it is tweaked it wil also automaticly Dial-in to yoiur provider so nobody has to dail in. It's not that difficult if you read the document correctly and it works Verry FINE!!!! Another COOL solution if you wanna play a little and have an old 386 or 486 or whatever computer and 2 Network cards 1 floppydrive no harddisk in it(not nessesary) and minimal 8 or 16 mb of ram. You can make your own floppyrouter it's verry easy and fun. You can configure your network on the website itselfe, and after that with your webbrowser configure your ISP settings read all about it on this site: http://www.bbiagent.net/en/