i would like to know how to configure a linux box running mandrake 9.1 - i have a pppoe internet access and would like to split it to two windows xp server pcs - i put in three pci network cards and they all come up perfectly as eth0, eth1, eth2 [eth0 being the one that has an rj45 to my sympatico adsl internet access] do i use dhcp on all - that doesnt work -- how would you configure Drak for 3 network cards, 1 for internet and two other for connections to two computers?

If you haven't already, take a look under "Network" in the Mandrake Control Panel, it has options for setting up connection sharing and so on. I'm pretty sure you won't have to use DHCP at all, just make sure you set proper internal IP addresses for each of the computers, also be sure to have the correct gateway (the Mandrake box) set for the other two computers. Optionally, you could run a DNS server on the Mandrake box which would assign an IP address to the other computers when they boot up. Usually, when you're using DHCP, you don't have to specify the gateway, so keep this in mind also.