Cable modems and networking

New territory for me. Cable internet now available in my area. If I use a router, the service costs no more per month. This will be in my business. I want to have two computers share the same modem. One of the computers runs Win 98SE and the other XP Home. Can someone detail a step by step process to accomplish this or get me to a good link? I already have Cat 5 cables run to between each office (although they have never been connected). Also what is a good router to buy? Thanks

http://www.practicallynetworked.com has some good guides.

I am fond of Netgear. For a simple network a basic router/switch is good.

did you want to just have internet access on each computer, or be able to share files with the two computers.

Just internet accesss- Connect the cable modem catv cable to the router, then catv cable from the router to the two computers. Itll pretty mch set it up automatically. Sometimes you need a disc that comes with it but I have never needed to use the software.

Sharing files, you need to do the above then open my computer right click on the drive/files you want to share.
Click on sharing...
click share this folder then assign a name to it ro you can leave it whatever it is.

You need to have accounts on both computers with the same name and password, because when you try to access it it will ask for a user name and password to login to that other computer to gain access to the files.

if you need more help you can search around here or you can email or pm me.


edit:
to view the other computers files, open network places ot network neighborhood then click on computers near me then on the computer you wish to view the files of.

you also have to give each computer an individual name, and put them in the same workgoup

By catv cable you mean Cable TV coax cable, or CAT 5. If cable tv cable, you would have to have a connections for that on the back of the PCUs?

cat5 cable sorry.

Thanks, that makes more sense, even to me!!!