I have Windows 2000 which is supposed to share an internet
connection, but all of my genius friends and I were stumped when it didn't
work.  I finally downloaded JANA2 (www.janaserver.de) which does a fine job
of sharing a DSL connection.  The documentation is quite good, but the website is very slanted towards those who speak German.

I guess I've jumped ahead of myself here.  If you are ordering an ethernet
adsl modem (which I strongly recommend) then you will avoid the trouble of
what I've listed above.  Of course, you will need some sort of networking
device.  I found a rather inexpensive router by SpeedStream at CompUSA, but
I have better things about Linksys and DLink.  For these routers, you will
simply connect the Ethernet modem to the WAN port of the router.  You then
connect your computers to the router, configure the router and the modem,
and you're surfing.

If you're like me, and you have a USB modem, then you will need to connect
that modem to one computer and share the connection as I mentioned above.
In this case, a hub will probably do (you could even, in theory, connect the
two computers directly together using a RJ45 crossover cable, which would
eliminate the need for a hub or router, but I've never tried that.)

I hope this helps; I've been learning about this the hard way since November or so.

Josh Kite
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy and David" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 10:34 AM
Subject: Networking for first time


Hi, I am new to this list so have been watching and reading alot. I am about
to network my old computer and new. Old is win 98 and new is win xp. I was
wondering if I need a router to network just two computers and have them
both online with DSL. Also I assume I will be able to transfer files from
old to new such as quicken etc. Thanks in advance.
Sandy & David Besecker

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com