How can i share my DSL connection??

Your friend's suggestion is exactly right and for the most part you're on the right track about what to do.

Connect the ADSL to the Linksys router. Since it's only a 4 port, you'll also need to daisy chain the router to a hub or switch. Use yourrouters uplink port or the appropriate crossover cable so they recognize each other correctly. You'll configure the router to use NAT/IP Masquerading and set the private interface to be your default gateway on your PCs. I know it sounds tricky, but it's really a piece of cake...especially with the Linksys routers. They are very nice and extremely easy to configure.

Here are a few websites that should be helpful references to you:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/

http://www.linksys.com/tech_helper/intro.html

http://www.dslreports.com/pictures

http://www.speedguide.net/reviews/linksys/index.shtml

There are a lot of good links on some of these pages as well...that will provide help later troubleshooting, performance testing, etc. The Linksys specific link will assist you in setting up the Router.

If you have any problems or run into a snag, don't hesitate to let us know. You'll be surprised how easy it is though.

Good luck!!! Hope this helps...

If your equipmennt is RJ45... then your friend is correct. You need the Linksys router and a hub because you have 6 computers mentioned above.

You will need to setup a static ip address on one of the computers and then http://192.168.1.1 -- that will take you into the router setup. From there, you need to setup the router for PPoE (Point-to-point over ethernet) which is what DSL requires. Check the box on the setup within the router to "Keep Connection Alive" and then setup the DHCP tab(if you need the Linksys to hand out internal ip addresses).

Remove the PPoE software already installed on your computers and then you should be able to connect each computer and share the internet connection automatically.

LinkSys has an excellent website guide ( http://www.linksys.com/support/default.asp ) -- but their manual is properly sectioned and clear as well. They also have toll-free technical support if you run into problems.

To add to the above comments, if your main system (the one with the current DSL connection) is running Windows 98 Second Edition or higher (Win2K, WinXP), then you can set up Internet Connection Sharing on it. Your other systems would connect to your hub, and use the ICS connection to go out to the Internet.
Here is an article on ICS for Win98SE:
http://www.microsoft.com/insider/articles/ics.asp

This article tells you what ICS is, and how to set it up.

Depending on what machines you have on your personal network. I would recommend using either Win 2k ICS. It is easy to configure and rather stable, but with out good firewall software, it is rather insecure. Most applications on your internal network will be able to access the Internet through your ICS machine with out a lot of additional configuration, since ICS uses DHCP to configure your internal machines.

Personally I ended up setting up a Linux Firewall/Firewall for my cable modem, with DHCP and Caching-only DNS services for my internal network. It wasn't too big of a hassle to set up, since there are a lot of good HOWTOS from the Linux Documentation Project: http://www.linux.org/docs/index.html

Either way is good, Win2k ICS for simplicity or Linux Masquerade for versatility (and cost).