Thanks to the help I received here, I solved my problem in less than half an hour when I got home tonight. Forget about ZDNet, CNet, Slashdot and all the other computer websites. The best computer minds reside right here at Free Republic.
I will repeat in detail what happened tonight for the benefit of others on Free Republic who might want to share their broadband connection with other computers in the house.
So to recap, my situation was this: I had a small 2-PC network, one for my kids and one for me and the wife, and I was sharing a S-L-O-W 56kps dial-up connection on that. We had to deal with dropping lines all the time and my computer had to be turned on and connected to the ISP in order for the kids to use the web on their PC. So I went and signed up for broadband internet through AT&T. Lo and behold, the installers came, unhooked my cheap hub, and took the NIC hostage for their own WAN (wide area network) in which I was now just a node. In order to get my network back, I had to either buy a new NIC or get a router (which is essentially a hub-like device that connects two networks together).
Nearly everybody suggested getting a router instead of getting a second NIC and that is what I did. Some, like innocentbystander, suggested the Netgear FR314 router, and many others suggested the Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL router. On my way home today, I dropped into a computer store and both models were carried. The Netgear looked like the superior piece of equipment but it was $249 while the Linksys was priced on sale for $79 (normally $129). So I grabbed the Linksys figuring if it didn't work, I'd get my money back and get the Netgear.
Well I got it home and I was real impressed with how easy it was to setup. Simply shut down everything, hook into the router and fire back up. I ran the web utility and didn't really have to change anything as my cable ISP assigns an IP dynamically. So I rebooted everything and tried to get the web connection working.
Nada.
But I remembered some Freepers in this thread talking about how you might need to clone the MAC (hardware) address from the NIC card to the new router. See, the cable companies only want one device per household using the connection. This gives them an opportunity to hit you up for another $9.95 per month for hooking up additional systems. So they configured it so the connection would only work on that one NIC.
So back to the web utility I went and hidden deep inside the menus was an option to reassign the MAC address for the router. So I did an "ipconfig /all" in a DOS session and retrieved the MAC address the cable company wanted to see. I programmed that address into the router and when I rebooted, BAM, both computers were on the web at breakneck speed. And the cable company is none the wiser, as all they see is my new router with the same MAC address as the NIC card they originally installed to.
BTW, it is not illegal to share a broadband connection in your home. The ISP's just aren't going to show you how to do it yourself because they would rather make the extra $9.95 a month doing it themselves.
When I got that accomplished, I was all set to brag to the rest of the world when I realized that my original network wasn't working. That is to say, my shared resources such as the printer, Zip drive, files, etc., weren't being recognized across the network. In fact, I couldn't even recognize the other computer. I tried pinging them and found that I could ping the Win98 system from my XP computer but I couldn't ping the XP computer from the Win98 computer.
Then I remembered something else that was said on this thread. When the software firewall is activated under XP, you can no longer share resources on the network. The cable company activated the software firewall when they made the connection.
Well now that I had my router, which is a hardware firewall, there was no longer any need for the software firewall. So I deactivated it on XP. Suddenly I could see the network again and vice versa. Lesson learned: Hardware firewalls are better than software firewalls.
So I now have my network back and both PCs are surfing the web at broadband speed. For those with dial-ups, you have no idea what you are missing out on. Despite the hassles I had to go through the last couple of days, I will never go back to dial-up again.
I hope this reply is helpful to others contemplating sharing their broadband connection. And much thanks again to all those who contributed their wisdom to this thread.