How do I do this? Can anyone point me to a guide if there's any? I only have 2 computers to setup so I don't want an extra hub for the network. The host has 2 nic while the guest has 1. The host is running Slackware 10.2 and the guest is running WinXP. I also want to share the internet connection with the guest computer. Will I still need Samba to share files between the two? I only want to access files on the guest computer using the host. I don't want the guest to have any privilege on the host system at all. Thanks everyone. =)

configure your windows box so that its gateway is the linux box, and you need a firewall script for that, searching in google is the easiest way to acquire one, if you have kde, you will be able to access all shared folders in your winxp box by using konqueror provided you have openldap package installed (im not quite sure about this one, experts correct me if im wrong), you dont have to configure samba if you dont have any plans accessing your files on your host system, hope this will help, goodluck.

ok. do i have to put both boxes on the same subnet? as for the firewall script, is it a special kind of script or do i just need to modify the entry of my iptables?

You'll need a RJ45 crossover cable to link the two nics that have to be in the same subnet, for instance:

host: 10.1.1.1 (second card)
guest: 10.1.1.2 (unique card)
subnet mask: 255.0.0.0

Don't use the 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 range for the two connected nics, because Windows, when sharing internet connections, will force you to use the 192.168.0.1 address on the card that is connected to your adsl/cable connection. If you choose Linux to do the sharing, I highly recommend SLACKFIRE. It will protected your internal network and will do NAT and IP forwarding for you.

Thanks for the insight. I'll try this later and give you a feedback of what I've achieved.

Hi! It has been a long time. I did it finally, but I was wondering if there is a difference in using the address that Slackware and Winxp assigns by default. See, I want to have the same address for both, the reason is that I want to have the same connectivity even if I switch OS. Can this be done?

You can assign them the same IP, but I advise you to also designate both with the same name. I had run through some interesting problems (the way Windows handles shares, for instance) when trying to use different names.

I see what you mean, particularly when changing the name of the server since the host has to be reconfigured each time the server switches OS. It has to be done.