Does anyone know the best way to network two Windows PC's and share an Cable Internet connection with a hardware Router. I don't have a hub. Should I just add a second NIC to the PC that connects to the cable modem and wire it to the NIC on the second PC with a crossover cable. And then place the Router between my modem and the original NIC(one that hooked up to the modem? Would this setup work? Also, another question: Installing a second NIC(for a LAN) in my PC somehow screwed up the first NIC's settings and I lost Internet access. How can I avoid this? Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated -Tom

Your system should look something like this. -> = Plugs into Wall -> Modem -> Router -> NIC #1 -> NIC #2 Your router should have something like an uplink you plug into (from your modem to the router that is), then you should have ports like 1 2 3 4 and so on(depending on how many ports the router has). Plug the modem into the uplink in the router, then plug a 10 base T cable from port 1 into one of your computers and another into port 2 into the other computer. If you need to configure the routers configurations, post back. So, do you have static IP's or dynamic? If you dont know, contact your Internet Service Provider.

Thanks for the advice but I have a 2 port hardware router (ports labeled WAN and LAN) and I think my IP is dynamic there's a 2 day lease, or something like that Would my previously posted setup work with this kind of router? Also, Do I need a second card in one of my machines for a private network, or just one NIC in each machine? -Tom

If you are saying if you need to NIC's in one computer, the answer is no. If you are wanting to share files between the two computers, try this. Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Network, from here click add. On the screen that pops up, select client, then client for microsoft networks. Now you are back at the network screen, click add again. On the screen that pops up, select the service and then select again service for microsoft networks (something along those lines). Then click ok til you get back to the network screen. Here, click on the tab at the top that says Identification. You can name your computer anything, description can be anything, but your workgroup must be the same on both computers, thus you have to do this process for both computers. Click ok until you restart, once you restart, click on the network neighborhood icon or the my network places, then click on entire network, if you get an error here, you did something wrong so post back, if not you should see yourself, if you dont see yourself, check the left hand part of the window and there should be a blue little place to click that says "view entire contents" and that should be that. I hope this helps, if you need further instruction post back.