3 computers networking

hi
we have 3 computers in my house and 1 broadband 1 aol internet connection
what we want to do is link them up through ntl broadband cable box
we all have xp so im guessing it should be pretty much straight forward? i havnt attempted yet as i have to phone them up and get them to allow more than 1 ip address

but i also wanted to know is it simple to set it up so that none of the computers can access anyone elses hard drive?
and if so do you know of any tutorials on how to do it or could you tell me?

i did actually leanr how to do this on an old version of windows for my HND but that was a long time ago and ive forgot

cheers
tony

You'll probably find the the XP network setup wizard does everything you want it to. On one computer you'll need to configure Internet Connection Sharing, but I should think that the wizard will enable this for you. However, you only need the one external IP address. The computer with the broadband will have two IP addresses - one for the external Internet and one for the internal network. Within your local network, you'll want computers to have IP addresses like 192.168.0.x, not public addresses.

By default, when you run the wizard, the only folder that is shared is the shared documents folder. You whole hard drive isn't shared by default.

HTH