HOWTOs just aren't sinking into my head. I'm too st00pid for them. Does anybody know of a good step-by-step tutorial anywhere on the 'net for configuring Linux (it'd be nice if it was Mandrake-specific) to connect to the internet indirectly via a cable modem? (i.e., the cable modem is connected to a router on a different floor, cable is run from the router to a mini-hub on this floor, and two computers are connected to the mini-hub)

It doesn't have to be printer-friendly; I can bring the tutorial up on my main screen and refer to it while I get the settings all put together on my laptop, and then bring the tutorial up on my laptop while I configure my main box.

It'd also be nice to know how to make my two computers talk to each other; I have a bunch of stuff on an NTFS partition on my laptop that I'd like to copy over to my desktop, but although both computers (in 'Doze) can access the internet, they can't see each other.

try searching google. there are lots of docs that may help you.

if you're connected to a router, you probably just need to setup mdk to use dhcp to get online.

windows/samba sharing... if you add 'file and print sharing' to your network setup in windoze, you can share a directory with any other networked machine. if you can't 'see' it in network neighborhood, try using the ip in START/RUN - \\192.168.xxx.xxx\ . if that works, you can mount it from linux, if you want. lookup smbmount for that.