Network setup help?

[emissions4]

I hope someone can help, I've a four pc's at home that I want to network, two machines with 98se, one with xp home, and the final one with Xp Pro Sp1, along with a 8 port ethernet switch, and a (NIC) ADSL connection.

I currently have the xp pro box with 2 nics one for adsl, and xp home connected via the other. I need to setup the xp pro box as the server connecting all the other machines through the router, primarily for network rendering (cinema 4d), but also for internet sharing and file sharing, and looking at a intranet for the future.

I can't afford the server edition of windows, as I've spent enough already, can anyone advise or help setting up a network with the exsisting setup... Not sure on how the switch fits in, i.e. do I assign an ip address to that, or.... well I'm a designer not a network person....

Help much needed.... thanks

[Aaron]

You don't really need a server edition of Windows, it'll still use the same ICS. You can use any of your PCs to act as an ICS host, but using XP should give better results.

Unplug your crossover cable linking your XP Home and Pro machines together, then get some standard straight through cat5 cable and connect each PC to the ethernet switch.

The switch holds your network together. (you could call it a hub, but a switch is the "better" version of the hub which is able to handle traffic better, but still provides the same function)

You should get yourself an ADSL router as this is far better than software-based ICS. The router also connects to the switch, and will automatically give out IPs to your PCs.