Networking options-dialup-xp-sharing

Hi all.
Haven't really found in this forum an answer to my question. A friend has 2 p-4's, XPhome, PCI nics and internal modems in both. He also has a wired router which he used before when he had DSL. He now has only dialup and would like to connect the 2 puters, share files and folders, and the dialup. He is even less savvy than me on setting this up. External modem would be no problem. What is the easiest way to set these puters up? Crossover cable would provide link between the puters, but would it allow dialup sharing too? Could dialup be initiated from either computer? Would the router be necessary, or make the linking easier? RAS? Need a simple solution that I can e-mail him, as he is about 150 miles away.

Thanks in advance, for replies and suggestions,

frums

Definitely use the router for connecting the two computers. As for sharing the dial-up connection, that's a little more difficult. The Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in WinXP should allow this, but I've never worked hard enough at it to make it work. A better choice (or at least an easier one) would be something like Sygate Proxy, which does allow for the secondary computer to cause the primary to dial the ISP if the connection isn't already established (ICS may do this as well, but I can't say for sure).

Your friend will want to let Sygate act as DHCP server, and turn off that function in the router (you can't have two DHCP servers on the same local network).

Hi, You might like to keep this simple:-
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/qa/qa20030213.shtml

Thanks for the replies, both of you. Jenae, I believe the link you gave has some very good info on it and should work well for him. I have sent him the link and the info, and will await his reply. I thought it could be done somewhat like that, but never had done it before myself with dialup. Will followup if there are any problems or more questions - but also to say it all worked.

Thanks again

frums