Why don't you just use a router? There are quite cheap these days.

I dont really want to. I should have all the equipment i need.

read too cheap or too lazy or both.

By making one of your computers the primary network connection, you're basically making it into a router. You can never turn that PC off. Your pc will always be exposed to the internet with no protection beyond what Microsoft's crappy firewall provides.

For like $20-$30, you can buy a cheap router. You get instant internal DHCP server, instant NAT, port forwarding, and most importantly a physical separation between your internal hosts and the external internet.

A little bit cheap and lazy, true. Perhaps ill have to admit that it doesnt work with what i have.

well, it sounds to me like you're having some typical Windows networking problems. Getting a router may not fix your pc to pc networking woes...but at least you don't have to fuck with crossover cables and whatnot.

Have you tried going into your network connection and just deleting everything? You'll need your XP CD, but you could delete all your clients, TCP/IP and all that crap from your local area connection, then rebuild it from scratch.

derf to fix set all nic's to "obtain ip address automaticlly"

should fix your problem and dont use the wizard.

Ive given up. Ill just grab the USB cable when i need it. Fucking technology.

Net working is the freakin' suck. I hate it it never goes well.

derf this is so easy

this is what you do.

Connect your modem to your pc1 using USB.
Connect your pc1 to pc2 using a standard cable, NOT CROSSOVER.

On pc 1 you go to Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections

Highlight both your USB and your NIC connection. Select Bridge.

A bridge will be established. If you get an error message about "internet sharing" you need to turn off internet sharing on both the connections.

Done.

If your connection to the internet still doesnt work on pc2 then make sure you default all the IP settings to "Obtain IP address automaticlly".

Okay, ill give it a shot. I think i have some non-crossover cable lying about..............Is this it? "FastCat5e Premium Patch Cat5e Patch Cable"...I cant be arsed to try tonight, ill try tomorrow.

eh.... pc to pc you need a crossover. A patch is only for connection via switch/bridge/router/hub.

Its my understanding most nic have auto-negotiate ?

I tried it your way 11b, and it doesnt work. I used the patch cable thingy between pc1 and pc2, un-shared the internet connection, bridged the internet connection with the connection to pc2. When i set the IP's of both pc's to auto-acquire, they got "Limited or No Connectivity". When i set IP's for them, they happily seemed connected. In both cases, pc1 couldnt access the internet after the bridge had been made, nor pc2 or that matter. Pc1 could "see" pc2 in the workgroup, but pc2 froze when asked it to look at the workgroup computers.

I shall label you "technically changed" and recommend you buy a netgear rp614 router for about $40 and be done with it.

If you want to keep trying do this:

Unplug pc2 from pc1
Turn off modem, turn off pc1, turn off pc2
Turn on modem
Wait 2 mintues or so
connect modem to pc1 via usb modem
Turn on pc1
Make sure you can get on internet with pc1. If you cant then before you even think about pc2 you need to figure out why you cant get on the internet.
Once pc1 is on the internet then bridge your connections on pc1.
After the bridge is established connect pc1 to pc2 via cable.
Turn on pc2.
See if you can get on net.

a pc to pc patch cable shouldn't work because of the wiring pinout. It'd be like talking to someone's mouth and listening to their ear.

Anyway, I'll just go to sleep and pretend none of this ever happened.