Hello everyone,Wow! I feel lucky to have found this forum!
I have just purchased a new laptop which has Windows ME installed. I will be giving my older laptop (which runs Windows 98SE) to my wife and I would like to set up a connection to share my cable modem between the two. FWIW, my cable internet access is provided by ATT Broadband (formerly MediaOne/RoadRunner) in Los Angeles.
If it would help, I can certainly upgrade the computer I will be giving my wife to Windows ME.
Anyway, before I pore over the many messages here, I thought I would ask if there is any sort of assembled tutorial on what I'd like to accomplish? Referencing that might be easier than reading over hundreds and hundreds of messages.
Also, for the time being I will want to set up a connection only between the two laptops. I'm under the impression that the only hardware required to accomplish this is the requisite number of NIC cards (3?) and a crossover cable. Is that correct?
Eventually, though, I will want to add a third computer to the sharing arrangement, and my idea is that the third computer (a desktop) would be the "always on" server, with the two laptops acting as clients. This way, my wife would still be able to access the cable modem when I am out of town.
BTW, a quick question... does the "second" computer in a 2-computer sharing arrangement suffer any kind of lag or slowdown of the cable modem signal? What about if both users are using the modem at once? (I apologize if this is a stupid question, but I am a novice.) If there is no comparative disadvantage, I suppose I could simply make my wife's laptop the #1 machine, therefore eliminating the problem of cable modem access when I travel. However, that machine is a good bit less powerful, processor wise, if that makes any difference.
So, if I were eventually to go to a three computer network w/ printer sharing, etc. -- at that point I need to incorporate a router, is that correct? What does something like that cost? What other hardware might I need to accomplish that?
Thanks for indulging all my questions. I have just one more. Do I need to call ATT Broadband to switch my cable service from my old laptop to my new one, or is that something that I might be able to handle myself? Where might I find instructions on how to accomplish this? (Or perhaps I shouldn't switch at all, if I want to set up the older laptop as the #1 machine in a two computer sharing arrangement?)
Thank you VERY MUCH for any advice or references you can offer.
Regards,
MercyMe
