Network Solution 1:  PC to PC with Crossover cable

Network Solution 2:  PC to PC with a Hub or Switch  

Network Solution 3:  PC to PC with a Wireless Access Point

Network Solution 4:  PC to ISDN Router

If you've already got the Internet up and working on 1 PC, and want to share it with another PC, the first PC has to be connected to the second PC via a network card in each computer with some sort of cable in between.

Most modern PC's come with a LAN or Local Area Network connection port. This is also sometimes called an Ethernet Port or RJ45 port.

To connect two PC's directly to each other via an ethernet port, you need a Loop Back or Crossover cable. This cable looks like a standard 8 wire Patch cable but there is a significant difference. The two ends of the Crossover cable are wired so that the transmit pins on one end go to the receive pins on the other and vice versa. Below are two pictures indicating the different cables and their pin out's. These Patch cables also go under the name 'Cat 5 cables'. Category 5 is the standard used for the actual cable part.

Normal Cat 5 Patch cable, both ends are the same.

Cat 5 Crossover cable, each end has a different configuration.

Once you've got the crossover cable connected between the two pc's you then have to configure each PC so that they can talk to each other. Windows XP does this for you quite nicely if you run the Network Setup Wizard located in the Network Connections section of the Control Panel.   Open the Control Panel, then click Network Connections, then File / Network Setup Wizard.

We want to run this setup program FIRST on the PC that is connected to the ISDN NT1+II so that this PC establishes itself as the Internet connection sharing PC or the Gateway PC for any others to connect through. During the process, make sure you indicate that this PC connects directly to the internet and choose the Dial-up connection you have to your ISP as the way it connects.  e.g.  Bigpond ISDN

Once you've run that wizard, you can then run the same Wizard on another XP machine and make sure you indicate that it connects via another PC via a Local Area Network connection and it will 'find' the Gateway PC and set itself up to connect to it for it's own internet connection.  If you're running another Operating system and have to configure the connections manually, then that is another story altogether. I can't provide all OS instructions but you should be able to get the general vibe of things from the instructions below.

To configure the setup manually,

1) Go into the Control Panel / Network Connections and right click your Local Area Network connection, click Properties, find the TCP/IP option and highlight it, click the Properties button, Place the dot in 'Use the following IP address', type in 192.168.0.1 for the IP address and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask.

The IP address we are using here is in a range that is set aside for internal networks and is not used on the Internet side of things. The subnet mask is standard for this IP range.

You will also have to set the DNS servers as well, that information is usually specific to your ISP as each has their own Domain Name Server addresses. For Bigpond, you can use, 139.134.5.51 and 139.134.2.190 , they are listed on the Bigpond web site if you look hard enough. DNS servers help convert web address names to IP addresses, the Internet won't work without them.

Click OK to finish.

We have just set the Network Connection of our Gateway PC to 192.168.0.1 , this is like giving your house a street address, on our local area network, this PC can now be found by the others.

2) In the same Network Connection window there will be another icon for your ISDN Dial-up account. Right click this icon and click Properties.  Click the Advanced Tab and check the 'Allow other network users to connect through this computers Internet connection's tick, you can also tick the other two options as well if you wish, they're self explanatory.

Click OK.

3) On our second PC, we will have to do a similar setup, but this time, not use the same IP address as this won't work. Again, to explain, e.g. the postman will have a bit of trouble if both you and your neighbour have the same street address.. !!

On the other PC, go into the Network Connections and right click your Local Area Network connection, click Properties, find the TCP/IP option and highlight it, click the Properties button, Place the dot in 'Use the following IP address', type in 192.168.0.2 for the IP address and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask. For the Default Gateway spot, type in 192.168.0.1 address of our Gateway PC. This way our second pc knows where to look for a way out of our Local Area Network. You will have to put the DNS server IP addresses here as well, so this second PC knows where to send that sort of query when it's online.

Click OK.

There should be no Dial-Up connection needed on this PC as it just uses the LAN for all it's access.

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