OK I have tried almost everything I can think of and cant figure this out. My main machince is running Windows XP and secondary machine is running Redhat 8.0. When I start everything up, windows loads up fine and connects to the internet with no problems. Then when I load up linux, it all goes pfffttt.

The Linux machince will access the internet and it seems to shut down the internet access on the XP machine. Both computers run into a netgear 4 port hub and then to my adsl modem. And i have never had any problems before when using windows on both systems with this setup.

Any help with this??? Where should I start??

I don't run a DSL connection but as I understand it the modems typically have a ethernet connection which plugs directly in to a ethernet card and then pppoe (or maybe dhcp) is run and that card gets your ip address, default gateway etc. That being the case if you are only using a hub you should only be able to connect one machine at once.

This is, however, easily fixed. The Linux machine can run as a gateway to the internet. All other machines on your local net then go via the linux box for internet access. The side affect benefit is the option for you to set up a basic (or not so basic) firewall.

In simple terms the linux box would have two network cards one that connects to the internet and the other to your local network and the firewall determines which packets make it back and forth.

Now on the other hand if the modem you are using has some sort of routing capablilty then you may be able to use that to perferm the gateway task, perhaps post the model etc of the dsl modem.