Networking

Clarifications

The instruction are different for both.

As I'm assuming that the Air Card is already working you need to share that computer across the network and make it a Residential Gateway for the Internet. If this computer has a USB Device to connect to the Outside World forget all about it as it will be slow and very unreliable. If you have a PCMCIA or PCI Card as the Air card install it to the computer and go from there.

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1.Click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections. Windows has installed a LAN connection for your small network here.

Note You can also use the Classic view in Control Panel. To switch to Classic view, click Start, click Control Panel, click Switch to Classic View (if available), and then double-click Network Connections.

To verify your LAN connection, right-click your connection, and then click Properties. The installed network components appear.

TCP/IP
Network protocols help your computers speak the same language so they can share data. Network protocols define the rules for communication. Most computers use TCP/IP protocol. After the Internet boom, this protocl became the standard protocol for small networks. You must configure two items.
IP Address and Subnet Mask
The most important item is the IP address. The IP address gives each computer a unique address where it can be accessed in the network. This address has four numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods. All computers are numbered in a series.

The subnet mask determines the network where the computer resides. This is especially important in larger networks. Large networks are frequently divided into several subnets. In your small network, all the computers are in the same subnet.
Internet
The Internet is a large TCP/IP network that is based on IP addresses. The addresses must be unique here, too. Two computers cannot use the same IP address. If you want to access the Internet, you must make sure that your small network does not use an address that is already in use. Therefore, there are certain address ranges that you can use in your network without problems. For example, you can use address ranges such as 192.168.0.X, where X is a number between 1 and 254. Use 255.255.255.0 for your subnet mask.

To define the IP address and the subnet mask, follow these steps:
1.
Right-click your LAN connection, and then click Properties.
2.
Click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
3.
Click Use the following IP address, and then type the corresponding number combination. If you use 192.168.0.1 for the first computer, use 192.168.0.2 on the second computer, and 192.168.0.3 for the third computer, and so on. The subnet mask stays the same for all the computers. Use 255.255.255.0 for this, as recommended.
4.
Click OK, and then click Close.

Setting the Computer Names and the Workgroups
You must assign a name and a workgroup to every computer, regardless of what protocol you use. As with the IP addresses, each computer name must be unique. Therefore, you can use a computer name only one time in your workgroup. To assign a name and a workgroup to the computer, follow these steps:
1.
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
2.Click See basic information about your computer.

Note If you are using Classic view in Control Panel, double-click System instead.

3.Click the Computer Name tab, type a description of the computer (optional), and then click OK.

4.To define the computer name and the workgroup, click Change on the Computer Name tab, and then click OK.

Notes
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Assign each computer a different, meaningful name.
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Make sure that you assign every computer to the same workgroup. .
5.Click OK, click OK again, and then restart your computer.
Hope this works for you.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

If you are thinking of sharing one wireless Internet connection with a bunch of other computers, then forget it as it will be slower than molasses in winter.

Why can't you just plug the output of the router into your network switch?