See if I've got this right, please.

My wife's getting her first machine next week: a Dell laptop with a NIC plug-in and XP Pro. I'm downstairs with a Win2k desktop and DSL. We don't care about networking beyond sharing the DSL account.

I understand we need only a gateway/access point inserted between my computer with its phone-company ethernet card, and the phone-company DSL modem. When my wife's machine is in place, I insert the phone company's DSL install-CD in her machine and let it install what's needed. Any boxes to be filled in during the install get the same data I provided when I installed on my machine. Now, if both machines are on, we both have the DSL line (but hers is slower).

How far off am I?
O.

Your're very close. You may not need a gateway/access point. Some DSL modems, such as the WESTELL 2200, et. al., actually have a built-in router. All you need is a hub to provide a place to plug in two cables. The router settings are probably already what you need, by default. That is, it'll probably take over and assign each of you a unique local-side IP and DNS server addresses.

The truth is, you wouldn't even need to run the CD in her machine, probably....

I would suggest you grab a hub, hook it up, and come back if you have any problems, which I don't think you will.

Regards

I don't believe this is correct. It assumes the DSL modem is going to serve out more than one ip address. Only if you are PAYING for more then one address would this work. Examine your bill. I would hate to see you get a hub that you can't use.

My recommendation would be to get a wireless router.

Configuation would be as follows;

DSL-->modem-->router--> wired pc connection
****************|
****************|__> wireless laptop connection

The wireless router is easy to set up and comes with instructions [least all of my Netgear's have]

My wife loves her wireless laptop. Highly suggest getting one of those bed tables. You know the ones with foldout legs that provide a breakfast tray for having breakfast in bed? You can order from Target. This prevents the laptop fan from not working since it is blocked by pillows/bedding.

I know for a fact that the WESTELL 2200 modem HAS AN INTEGRAL ROUTER. I also know that if you hook two machines to it via a hub, it behaves in precisely the same manner as a modem with an external router attached. That is, it provides INTERNAL IP addresses to the local machines. You even set up the router portion the same way, by it's internal HTML pages. You can do port forwarding, triggering, the whole ball of wax.

If you'd like me to dig up some links whereby you can verify this, I'll do so. Or you can Google, as I did.

Bless your heart, DaWei_M; you're wonderfully encouraging. However, this is a PHONE company. They ain't likely to act the Dutch Uncle and leave a modem with me that needs only a hub to add a non-paying customer. I think wanderer is probably right: I'll need a router. And anyway -- can I be sure I won't want to network more amply once the lady gets the hang of things and wants to backup, accumulate photos, and all the rest? That being said, any suggestions about router specs I ought to *avoid*?

Many thanks to both of you.

Oyster

Well, it was the phone company with my friend, also...Verizon. Possibly they don't expect the customer to know what they have. I didn't realize it had an internal router until I set it up for a remote connection (so I can control it from here). But there it was. It's every bit what you would get with a Linksys 2-port router like I have, but has one less plug. Why you need the hub. The ISP has NO visibility of the local side of the the router. It has DHCP facilities, does the NAT, all that. It will see both your systems and assign a different IP to each. Your internal IPs will no doubt be in the 192.168.0.x range or 192.169.1.x range, the gateway YOU see will be 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Whichever it is, if you put that in your browser's address line (behind http://) you'll get the setup for the modem/router. Typically, your user name will be blank and the password 'admin' to access the router, or user name 'admin' and password 'password'. For the DSL my friend has, you HAVE TO change the password to what you've established for access to the ISP.

You can network as many systems, within reason (say 10), as you like. Typically your subnet mask will have 256 addresses available, but the router wouldn't use them all. Network setup isn't automatic; you can have internet access to all machines without it. But you CAN set it up, file and printer sharing and all. Edwin will help. :-)))

...assuming the WESTELL 2200 or equivalent.... ;-)