or yes no no even - my brain is fried lol

Isn't it normally 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 ?

Depends on your gateway what starting IP it takes...At home my gateway starts at 100 (192.168.0.100) while my secured network goes with 128.1.1.0-23

BTW, this is why I didnt finish my ICS on the system and went with the router. I messed with this for 6 weeks and had it working for only 2 of the 6 weeks total. Now, a friend at work has it working perfectly where all 25 of his computers and Internet Appliances use his Win2k machine as the gateway no problem.

well for now i'm gonna reinstall everything from scratch and try again tomorrow, maybe try and find an "idiots" guide later on tonight before starting...
...was just confused that everything went so smoothly until the point they can't see each other!

anyhoo, i shall keep you posted with my progress but thanks for the help in the meantime people

But they are usually 192.168.x.x aren't they AphJN? Not 192.68.x.x as Slongo said he's got.

And, Slongo, if they're on a different subnet mask (I wasn't quite sure what your answer was to that in the end!), then they probably won't see each other. The subnet mask, as far as I know, is usually 255.255.x.x.

Yes, you are right about the 192.168.x.x (I checked mine to make sure) However, if the first two octets are the same it doesnt matter if the Subnet mask is 255.255.0.0

yeah sorry i was kinda recalling the ip address(es) from memory. lol

good news though, all working now i think it was a combination of the network card manual containing no information on creating and setting up a new network and ending up in a click frenzy after getting frustrated.

reinstalled everything, thought about it a bit more, and things eventually came together fairly easily (took a lil while to get the internet connection sharing going until i found the new connection wotsit and it found my connection on the host pc).

hint for other networking newbies: don't tackle such a thing when you've only had 6 hours sleep in the past 3 days!!

thank you everyone for your help all the same
slongo - a happy networker

6 hours sleep in the past 3 days!! That much........you lucky thing.
Come one everyone take a bow........ ROFL

Glad to hear you got it sorted