sharing internet hookup between windows and linux?

[Campagfan]

Rightio guys and gals.
I am a complete n00b. Thats out of the way i have two desktops at home at the moment. One running winblows XP and one that is about to have openSuse 10.2 (KDE) installed on it. My broadband is running through the winblows system at the moment via an ethernet connection. Is it possible to hook the second machine running openSuse to my broadband so i have both machines hooked to the internet and able to browse seperate sites etc. I guess im after a network sort of deal if at all possible. Any advice on the chances of this and what i would require will be greatly appreciated.
cheers
Mick

[Cabhan]

This is 100% operating system independent.

To give you a brief overview, you need to decide if you want a wireless or a wired network. If you use a wireless network, your computers don't need to be physically attached to the router. If the computers are close together, a wired network will likely be cheaper. Also, a wireless router can support more computers, due to the space limitation on the router.

Anyway, if you go for a wired network, you just use an Ethernet cable to attach the router to the modem / box / whatever you call it, then use cables to attach the router to the computers. Your computers will need Ethernet cards, but most come with them these days. You then need to find instructions on setting up an Ethernet connection for Linux (your distro probably has documentation on this).

For a wireless network, your computers either need Ethernet or wireless cards, depending on how you will connect them. Use an Ethernet cable to attach the router to the modem / box / whatever, and then use a cable to attach it to one computer. Now you will set up the router (things like SSID, which is the router's name, encryption, etc.). At this point, each computer can be connected via Ethernet or a wireless card, and you will need to find instructions on setting up such a network on your Linux box.

If you get started and need help, we can always provide more specific advice.

[patnshan]

A router is really the only good way to do this. The router doesn't care what OS you are running, nor does the ISP. With my WRT54GL, I have internet access on an XP, Vista, and Ubuntu box. I am a newby too, and had to do nothing at all to get this to work via wired or wireless connections.

Pat