tired

Point taken. I'm off to Maplins then... Muchas Gracias

Other ppl are also telling me to get one. But i'll leave that as a last resort as it's just adds to the complexity, and cost. I don't understand why 3 identical machines can't form a simple lan with a shared internet connection. They're physically connected, it should just work. I mean, it was working... now it doesn't. I don't know which is lamer, me or this crappy os...

Ahh okay. So... the internet connection is via a cable TV box that plugs into an RJ45, and shows up in the Network Connections window under "LAN or High-Speed Internet". I've just disabled ICS, and neither of the other machines can connect to the internet. Do I need to change something in the internet connection's properties - authenticate as guest or something? Thanks,

If i uncheck ICS, the other two machines won't be able to access the internet... is that right or am I missing something? I want all three boxes to share one broadband connection, using a network bridge on the middle computer to connect the left & right ones. It worked, for a few sweet moments, but I didn't take proper note of the settings. I suspect I need to manually configure the thing without using the 'wizard', but could use some advice on what to tweak, & where... Cheers

Hiya folks. I have 3 SP2 machines side-by-side, and I want to set them up as a LAN sharing a single internet connection. The broadband is connected to the first one, and the middle box has two network cards. If I bridge the two segments on the middle box, I lose ICS on 2 & 3. If I assign static IP's to 2 & 3 then I lose ICS on them too. But if I set them to aquire their IP's from box 1 they fail to connect properly. Or the middle box connects, but not the one on the r/h/s. I've tried putting the two cards in the same machine as the internet connection; no joy. If I remove the net connection and assign the left box to 192.168.0.1 the others fall in line. But if I assign my broadband connection to 192.168.0.1 it stops working (duh) so I don't know what to do... It was working, briefly, until I rebooted. I don't remember exactly how, but the middle box was bridging the left & right box, and each machine had internet access, as well as access to the shared folders on each machine. For a few short minutes I was praising the gods. But they forsook me. I've been at it for two days without let-up. I hate XP, 'tis an evil thing. Regards, S. V. Tired