Networking ME and XP

[Smike]

Situation:

In my house there are two PC's running windows ME, and one running XP. Peroidically there is another XP computer, as my brother returns from Uni.

The XP computer is connected to AOL broadband via a USB modem, and to a printer via another USB cable

I would like to network the 3-4 PC's so I can access the internet and printer from my room, even when the XP PC isn't on.

I assume I need to buy some kind of hub thingy and some wires.

Cost is a major issue, so wireless isn't likely to be the best solution.

I'm not an expert at networks, although I've networked the two ME PC's using a crossover cable.

Is what I want possible? Anybody got any links to good explanations of how to do it?

Thanks.

[Wudang]

Yep. Check www.novatech.co.uk and maplins as good sources of basic hubs. My 4-port ethernet hub with 2 cards was £20 I think. There's a network setup wizard in Xp that you can run on the ME boxes. I have a XP PC with a USB ADSL modem with an ethernet card to such a hub into which is plugged (fanfare) an ME PC (or was, I wiped it for Suse Linux recently).

[Wudang]

Price misremembered unless I bought it in a sale.
This looks like it (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?F5D9100)

[roger]

I think the linksys site offers excellent tutorials. In essense, yes, you buy a router, plug your internet into it, then plug the router into your PCs, printers, etc.

http://www.linksys.com/edu/

The tutorial applies to any manufacturer's products, not just linksys products.

[Underemployed]

Sharing an AOL broadband connection with a router is slightly different from most other ISPs.

The logon information you must enter into the router is a username and password, which are not exactly what you use to logon to the AOL browser. Your username in the router should be:

yourscreen_namehere@aol.com

followed by your normal password.

The reason you must use a router is that you cannot set the AOL-dialler to be shared, like you can with other dial-up accounts. There may be hacks around this of which I'm not aware.

Another curious byproduct of using a router to share an AOL broadband account is that client PCs seem to be unable to access MSN instant messaging anymore. I have always assumed this to be because the AOL browser and dialler are designed to act with some sort of proxy. Let me know if this is the case with you or if anyone out there has come across this and fixed it.

[Smike]

Originally posted by roger
I think the linksys site offers excellent tutorials. In essense, yes, you buy a router, plug your internet into it, then plug the router into your PCs, printers, etc.

http://www.linksys.com/edu/

The tutorial applies to any manufacturer's products, not just linksys products.

Thanks, I appreciate the whole

"It's really easy so you must be really stupid not to get it. Now apologize and buy our products"

thing.

Seriously though, it's really useful, thanks.