Networking two win98 pc's w/ two ISP addresses

Minor correction. the cable modem might need a cross-over, depending on what hub you get.

Guys, I only have two PCs. Why would I need a hub? Shure, I need two NIC in one of the computers (one for the internet and the other for the home network)and if each computer has an IP address shouldn't they just connect to the ISP?
And the question remains: do I need to by a straight-through cable or will it work with what I have -crossover cable.

Well, for starters only networks are routable, not IP's. So to use two NIC's in one box you'd have to set that box up with an Internet gateway package (WinGate, WinProxy, etc). Then you'd create a "private network" for the second computer and funnel all the network traffic through a single external IP. This of course means that for the second box to access the Internet the first box has to be up & running. And if there's any serious activity between the second box and the Internet, you are likely to notice that the gateway box is appreciably slower than normal.

In contrast, if you get an inexpensive hub you can simply connect each of the systems to the hub (via straight through cables) and also connect the cable modem to the hub (might be a straight through or a crossover depending what hub and cable modem). Now there's no extra software and it doesn't matter if one of the systems isn't runnig, the other can still reach the Internet.

You can buy or make crossover cable. If you want to connect two PC's w/o a hub, you need crossover. There are 8 wires in a cable, you would need to switch 1 and 3, and also 2 and 6; of course you need a crimping tool.
Using a hub with "straight" cables would make it easier, if not the only way to achieve what you want to do. Otherwise you connect one of your PC w/2 NIC's to a cable modem and to your second PC. I think you would need some sort of gateway/proxy on it to facilitate any connection from your second PC w/1 NIC.
Buy a hub, they are inexpensive.

I would have to agree with the above. Although in theory it sounds like you should be able to pull your second IP through the master computer, but that (to my knowledge) will now work because the master computer will try to manage the second computer and will not let it pass straigt thru to the cable modem. You would make your life alot easier to buy an inexpensice 10Mbp hub. You can find them for as little as 10.00 on the net. I know buying more stuff sucks but if you where to buy I guaruntee you will spend alot more trying to get it to work the way you are suggesting. If you want to not use a hub and run the modem to only 1 computer then you will need a proxy program to assign computer2 its IP and its information-

Hi

i think that your problem is that a pc does never (!) have an IP Adress. The Adress does not belong to the PC but to the Interface! (yes the Interface is a part of the pc...) so if you want to connect two PCs via a crossovercable each PC needs a IP Adress for these two interfaces. If you also want to connect both PCs to your ISP you need two more IP adresses for your cablemodems.
You dont need more adresses from your ISP, simply use the both adresses you have for the cable modems. For the crossover Interfaces you may use private IP Adresses 192.168.10.1 for the one PC and  192.168.10.2 fot the other PC, both with a netmask 255.255.255.0. If your ISP gave you numbers starting with 192.168.10 you must use different numbers for your internal net you may change the 10 to any other number starting from 1 to 254,  you may also use any adress starting with 10.*.*.* for example 10.10.10.1 and 10.10.10.2 (and the netmask 255.255.255.0)

Best Regards Michael

Let's not make it more complicated than it is. It's actually simple. There is either hardware or software solution. Since you know about software and your question is about hardware, then my answer is: you need a hub. Unless, of course, your can plug more than one cable into your modem, cable modem that is.
By the way, that existing cable between your modem and one of your PC's w/2 NIC's is most likely what you call straight-through cable.

Adjusted points from 55 to 60

No cujavia, the cable is actually a crossover cable. But let me try to be a little bit more specific here.

I pay for my one and only cable modem $40 bucks a month. With it I get an IP address from Comcast (my provider) but if I choose to connect another PC to their service thru the same cable modem they are willing to provide me with another IP addres for this second computer for an additional $7.25 a month.
Now, please, don't tell me how I can do the same thing by using proxies or ICS because that is not the point. I'm not trying to save few bucks or even trouble, I just want to find out how to acomplish this task as is (assign two IP addresses for may two PCs provided by my cable company and have them connect to the internet).
If I HAVE to end up using a Proxy server fine, but if not please please somebody tell me how to do it otherwise.

Thanks in advance guys. 60 points for this question now as I see it seems to be harder than I thought.

OK, one cable modem with only one port to plug in one Cat5 cable w/RJ45. One PC with two NIC's plus one PC with one NIC. No software solution, no extra hardware but cables. YOU CANNOT MAKE IT WORK.

So tell me if I'm right and if the following will work.

One computer w/ 2 NICs, one NIC to the internet (that is, to cable modem) and the other to my second PC. I assign one IP address to my server and the second address to my second PC, I get a proxy software and "it" funnels the PC # 2 to the internet. And the computer #1 (Proxy server) and the computer # 2 (client) should be able to do this over a crossover cable.

You assign a valid IP address to your "external" NIC on your "server" PC that connects to a cable modem. The second NIC on the server via crossover cable is connected to your "client" PC with only one NIC.
Pending what software are you going to use (ICS, gateway, proxy) you'll have to configure both server and client accordingly. It is not recommended to use "live" IP addresses on your internal network; use Private IP Addresses, eg. 192.168.x.x either static or dynamic.
In summary, you need only one valid IP address.

If you use two NIC's and proxy or Internet gateway software you don't need, nor can you use a second IP from your provider. The second PC will be on a "private network"  (like 192.168.0.0) and all Internet activity will be funneled through and appear to come from the single external IP. The simplest, and best solution if you have a second IP, is to get a hub.

I hate to throw another wrench in this discussion, but you should also be considering firewalls. Cable modems are a shared environment, and VERY easy to get through. I use SonicWall, there are many other firewalls - hardware and software.
To restate what is stated above, there are 2 solutions that will work (that I know of), many that will not.
1) PC 1 as proxy with 2 NICs, crossover cable to PC2. My cable ISP only supports DHCP, so it would look like this:

        cable modem
            |
          PC1 NIC1 (DHCP)
            |
          PC1 NIC2  (make up one starting with 10.)
            |
          PC2 (different IP starting with 10.)

2) Cable modem and both PCs plugged into hub. This one looks like this:

           Cable modem
               |
            H U B
            |    |
          PC1    PC2

In either case, the firewall would be on the inside of the cable modem.
As usual, the drawing will get goofy, but it's not that hard.