I am having so much trouble on such an easy thing. I have 2 computers, that I both want to have internet access. It would be nice if they could have file and print sharing, but I dont absoultley need that.

My stock of items looks like this:
1 - Toshiba Cable Modem
4 - RJ-45 Ethernet cables (2 crossover, 2 straight)
1 - Microsoft 5 port switch
2 - Networking cards each on a seperate computer, each running xp

Here is how I had my original configuration. I had my cable modem running into port 1 on the switch, and had the two computers with the network cables running into ports 2 and 3. That worked for about 2 days, then one computer went out. So i turned off all the power, waited for about 30 minutes, then plugged everything back in, and the internet access was back on the one that had lost it, but the other computer lost it too. I really dont want to buy anything else, but if I have to I will. If you guys can help me, I would be glad to use my paypal account and donate. Thanks.

How are you sharing internet connection, I assume through the Window Internet Connection Sharing wizard? Or does your cable modem act as a router too?

What are both of your computers IP addresses/subnet/gateway/dns set to? You can find this by going in to a command prompt (Start Menu > Run > CMD) then type ipconfig /all