iv just signed up with virgin media 2 meg broadband and iv got this crappy cable modem that only has only 1 ethernet port(not a usb aswel) in my opinion this blows...to top it off they charge £45 quid for a wireless router wich is the only way of getting multiple computers on the internet at once. the utterly rubbish modem with just 1 ethernet port recognises the first computer that connects to it when its first turned on and wont allow any other computers to use it until u reset the modem. i was going to network the pc to my laptop and run the internet from my laptop 2 my pc but it seems both the pc and laptop only have 1 ethernet port, also its not very practicle when i dont always have both workstations turned on. is ther anyway of convincing the modem that both computers are the same computer and then plug the modem in to sum sort of ethernet splitter in which both computers could connect?

Hey Ultim, absolutely not. Modems are designed to accept one connection at a time. Even if it was possible to convince a modem that two computers were the same PC, then how would the modem know which PC to send the information back to?

A router is the only thing that you should use to connect multiple computers to the internet. You can pick up a new Netgear Router for around £20 from e-bay which I personally think is a reasonable price.

There are other methods as you stated, such as connecting one PC to another, and then the other PC to the internet. But would require an additional network card on that PC, and also that PC would need to remain on.

EDIT: Marked as Resolved.