A $10 hub won’t work for most ISPs. You will need a cable/DSL router. Your ISP assigns one IP address to your DSL modem. A hub won’t do the NAT necessary to “fake” having just one computer hooked up to the modem when in fact you have several.
You can add a 2nd NIC to the existing computer, set it up to do Internet Connection Sharing, and then plug you’re laptop into that. Kinda harder to do, doesn’t work as well, doesn’t save much money, etc.
believe me…just spend the extra 30 bucks over the hub and get a cable/dsl router. It’ll save you a lot of hassle with dealing with NAT / 2nd NIC card / crossover cables / assigning an IP address to your SuSE box, etc.
You will need a network card in your laptop regardless of what else you do.
If you’re NOT interested in file/print sharing, just unplug the DSL line from the parent’s machine and plug it into yours. Don’t need no steenking hub or router. Sure, they’re off the net while you’re on, but that may be acceptable.
If you do it htat way, then depending on how the ISP has configured their connection software you may need to install the same PPOE driver on your PC that your parents installed on their machine. Or maybe not.
That’ll be a matter of experimentation. The newer OS’s (Win2K, winXP) are more likley to not need special drivers. If you’re running Win98 or earlier, then you’ll almost certainly need the ISPs software installed.
I agree with the others: if you’re gonna try to hook up both machines at once, DEFINITELY spring for a router. Don’t try to make do with a hub; it won’t work.
I have a router & it functions to bring DSL to other computers & to network the computers so they can share files. Fatwallet.com usually has the sales in the deal forum, just search it for routers. Also, I don’t know how you’re gonna connect DSL to your laptop. You could get a pmcia card, I saw some at ecost.com yesterday in the bargain countdown section for free after rebate plus shipping & handling.
Around here, we’ve adopted the Linksys BEFSR41 as a corporate standard. Pretty easy to set up:
Buy one for $40-50
Plug it into the broadband connection and plug in one PC.
Using that one PC, set up the gateway, DNS, etc for your ISP.
Once you have broadband on the one PC, plug in others. Newer OSs will automagically acquire a LAN connection and be up and running. Older ones may need some twiddling. Linksys’ instructions and wizards are pretty good at handling this.
Be sure to remove the ISP’s PPPoE software from whatever PCs had it. The broadband router handles this internally. Your older PCs will appreciate not having to run what’s been traditionally buggy software.
Even if you have only one PC on a broadband connection, I HIGHLY recommend using a router as it hides your PC from anyone trolling around for open computers.