I saw a similar threadhere last night & asked a question. I'll give more detail & ask again.. I want to connect 2 pc's only. the current one is an 800mhz running win 982nd ed. It has a USB DSL modem as the internet connection. Comp t is a 1.6ghz with win XP. Both systems have an ethernet card. I have a 100ft cat5 ready.

Do I have to get a hub or router? If so, the linksys that I have seen don't use the USB modem. What to do?

You don't need a hub, just make sure that the cat5 cable you have is a crossover cable and not a normal cat5 cable.  Plug in a crossover cable and you will have a peer to peer network.

What's the difference? I have RJ45 Male/male. ethernet/token ring.

You will actually need a third NIC so that one machine has two cards in it. One card goes to the DSL connex and one goes to the other PC. The DSL system acts like a proxy gateway for the second machine but you need to have them both in the same workgroup subnet. Windows 2K has a real easy internet connection sharing wizard for small networks that lets you setup with a few clicks. I dont know if XP has the same wizard. You shouldn't have to run an actual server.

He will need a router or how else will he get the DSL into them.Right?


While I'm at it I hooked a 98se and Me together.They dont see each other.I,m have a cat6 cable but I'm not shure itsa a crossover though.Whats the diffrence between the two?

Thanks

The DSL is an external USB modem. What do I do about that?

You could use Internet Connection Sharing on your win98 pc, it will make your pc connected to the modem a router of sorts. Pretty easy to setup and it works well unless you have to start doing certain types of VPN.  Down side is that for PC #2 to hit the internet, PC #1 has to be turned on.

Unless the Cat5 cable you have is a cross-over cable (unlikely), you will need a hub or switch. The Linsys router may be useless to you as you connect to the modem via USB. Most of these type routers connect to the modem via Cat5, which allows them to then be plugged into your exsisting hub to give every computer on your network access to the internet. Some also have a 4-port switch built into them and can be used as your conectivity point for all of your computers.

   Given your current setup and assuming USB is the only way you can connect to your modem, I would say your best bet is a feature built into Win98 and later called Internet Connection Sharing. I would suggest you get the modem connected and working on your WinXP machine first as ICS seems to work better on Win2k and WinXP.  Basically, you will go into the network settings and right-click on your internet connection. You will then click on the sharing tab and select the checkbox that enables shareing for this connection. I believe it will then want you to reboot. Do so and your XP machine should be set to share the connection. You will then want to setup your 98 machine to get an IP address via DHCP (which may be how it is setup currently). Basically you right-click on Network Neighborhood, go to Properties, right click on the entry for the TCP/IP protocol, and enable the obtain an IP address by DHCP function. You willl have to reboot to make it active, but should be all set afterwards. You may want to check the windows help file for more details I may have missed. Good luck.

Crossover cable:

both ends RJ45 Male

Both count pins 1-8 from left to right looking at the end of the connector pinch tab up...

Pin......Conn1...........Conn 2
1.......white/orange....white/green
2.......orange/white....green/white
3.......white/green.....white/orange
4.......blue/white......blue/white
5.......white/blue......white/blue
6.......green/white.....orange/white
7.......white/brown.....white/brown
8.......brown/white.....brown/white


The afficianadoes will recognize that the conn 1 is in EIA568B and the Conn2 is EIA568A format. Of course the EIA568B is also known as 258A as commonly used on the AT&T/Lucent Merlin Legend.

Ted...

Edited due to spaces not being allowed (added periods)

Get the Linksys router with the 4 port hub in it (makes installation very simple).  It is available in a version with USB to the WAN

Are you sure about that? I thought the USB port version only allowed the USB port to be used for one of the PCs and still required a modem with an ethernet connection. But maybe we're talking about two different versions.

In any case, I use the non-USB Linksys router, and it was pretty easy to setup just by following the instructions, while not really understanding most of it.

The only thing I missed the first time was that before I had the router, I had to connect to the ISP by entering a username and password into some software they supplied. The router takes care of that now, after entering the username and password into the PPPoE area during the router configuration.

Check out [url] www.linksys.com [/url] for more info on their stuff.

You can do this VERY cheaply.  All you need is a crossover cable connecting your two machines and to set up Internet Connection Sharing on the machine that is connected to the DSL modem.

You can either buy a crossover cable for around $10, or you can make one by following the instuctions on this site:

[url]http://www.makeitsimple.com/how-to/dyi_crossover.htm[/url]

Don't use the ICS wizard that comes with Win98SE.  Follow the instructions at this site instead.  (Since your DSL modem is USB, you should be able to ignore the part about needing two network cards on the one computer):

[url]http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/ics_98[/url]

Hope this information helps you.  Happy surfing!

Nobody mentioned that you have to have a router unless you want to pay for the extra IP address.  A router will allow you to share the single IP address the phone company issued you between two computers.  The Linksys router is also a great firewall which you definately need.  Trust me, spend the money.  I love mine!

Interesting thread.  I have two computers running Win98SE.  I would like to access the internet (dial up on PCI modem installed on machine 1) from both machines, and also swap files and do gaming between the two machines.  Do I need one of these hub thingees and network cards? Or will the wizard that allows you to connect two machines directly accomplish what I need?

You'll need a way to connect them.  Either get two network cards or one of those USB solutions. I've never used the USB thing but I bet they are faster than network.  It depends on distance and/or cost.  Over 25 ft go with a two network cards.  Wilblow98SE has built in network capability that works great. It should work with both just fine.  If you use the network option then you will need a crossover cable as described above.  This is for connecting two network cards directly (or two hubs).  Connecting a card to a hub requires a straight through cable.  Hope that helps.

You have gotten some good advice, and some bad advice.

First hurdle, you have a USB DSL modem.  If you had a standard ethernet modem, it would be quite easy to get a router/firewall, and network/internet share away.

However, since your DSL modem is USB, it needs to be directly connected to a PC.  In this case, ICS (Internet connection sharing) is you best bet, provided you are looking to have both machines on the internet at the same time.

The cheapest solution, is as advised above, to install ICS (built into Win98se) on the machine connected to the DSL modem.  This will ONLY work if the driver for the DSL modem sees the modem as a network card.  Connect the two machines directly (NIC to NIC) using a crossover cable.  (a hub will work fine, but not needed if you can make/buy the crossover)  This configuration will give you internet sharing via NAT (network address translation) and peer to peer networking (you will have to configure file and print sharing on both machines as well)

However, if you are open to replacing the USB based DSL modem with an ethernet model (and that would be supported by your ISP) then a much "sexier" plan is to get a router/firewall, suck as the Linksys 4 port.  This router will connect to your ISP, and then NAT your inside network.  Very easy, and not too expensive, and provided everything you want, protection, and room for growth.  You are looking at about $150 for a DSL modem, and then $100 or so for the router.  I have the linksys 4 port with wireless, and it works great.

FALARAK Has nailed it on the head all you need is ICS and a crossover cable. If you let me know how long of a cable you need I would be more then happy to make one for you. If you ever plan to add a thrid computer I would recommend get a router but till then just use ICS.

Clinth

Awesome advice. Thanks for the info. I'll be going the peer to peer route at this time. FYI - Office Depot has the 4 port router by linksys for $99 with a $100 mail in rebate right now. I'll probably get one of them for later anyway.
I wonder if the system with 98se can be the server as it is allready configured for the modem. Bellsouth has a beta driver out for XP, but it's not fully supported yet....

98se can be the server just fine, as long as it "sees" the USB DSL modem as a network card with an IP stack.

There's no true server in a peer-to-peer network (hence the name).  You simply share files on one or all computers connected.  Make sure you load "file and print sharing for Microsloth networks" on the computers in the network and set the workgroup on all to the same (name).  You then need to enable sharing on each device to share.

Gun-fan:

If you want a crossover cable let me know as they can sometime be difficult to find at your local Office Depot/Staples (atleast around here).

I just received 127,000 pcs of Cat5 Enhanced patch cables this afternoon from our factory so couple won't make any difference.  Just let me know what color, length and quantity.  

You can get away with using the crossover cable but I would recommend getting a hub, then adding to your network will be easy.  You should be able to enable Internet connection sharing on the computer with the USB modem and set the other computer for DHCP.

I'd recommend using standard cables, and getting a cheap hub or switch for the Ethernent connections.  You can get a cheap 10/100 4-port hub for $30 or so.  Switches are a bit more pricy, and probably overkill fro a home network with few nodes.

If you have to relocate computers, you may have to get a replacement cable, and crossovers are a lot harder to come by than straight-through cables.  Plus, if you want to add a third PC, you'll need the hub or switch.

If cash is tight, or you have a hard time purchasing networking equipment, ask you local nerd to give you one.  Most IS departments have a load of old 10BT Ethernet hubs laying around.

You guys are awesome. Thanks again for all the info.