I have searched the internet for days trying to find out how to do the following, or if it is even possible, and I can't take it any more...my head plain hurts. I've read much about networking Linux/Windows, SAMBA, etc... but so far I can't piece it together as to what I need to do.

I have a Laptop running Windows 2000 that uses a PCMCIA broadband card to access the internet (DHCP). I want to share this internet connection with my desktop computer running Vector Linux. I am using a direct connection between the two computers using a crossover cable. Is there even a chance this can work?

I've set all the network and file sharing sharing settings in Windows the best I could figure how.
I can see the PCMCIA and the Ethernet controller in Windows as Windows suggests.
I've shared the PCMCIA (not the Ethernet) connection.
I've modifed my smb.conf file so the workgroup matches the Windows workgroup.
I've tried autoconfiguring and manually configuring the "vasm" network settings in Vector Linux.
I disabled the firewall in Linux, including chmod'ing some of the firewall files to a-x (chmod a-x /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall) and (chmod a-x /etc/rc.d/init.d/firewall).
I've checked the output of the "ifconfig" and "route" commands. ifconfig yields eth0 and lo connections, but pretty much the RX and TX packets have ONLY errors, no dropped overruns frames or carriers, collisions for both connections. "route" shows loopback, *, 255.0.0.0, U, 0,0,|,0, lo

to summarize, even after reading as much as I have, I'm simply now more confused than before...

thanks for assistance or moral support,
Jason

Yes, it can be done. Save a lot of the hassle and buy a router. The can be found from $15 on up.

I'm no expert with network sharing, which is why I leave it up to the wizards most of the time. But, saying all that, one can share with samba. They key is to all be in the same workgroup. Make sure that name is the same across the computers in the group.

Oh yes, and the Samba docs on the site are very good.

lazlow, so you think having a router would make this easier?

I do have the ability to get a router from my ISP for another $5 per month that would enable any computer running any OS to access the Internet. (The PCMCIA card inserts into the router, then it can be used either wired or wireless to networked computers) Maybe it's worth $5 extra per month? I was hoping I could do this for free.

Honestly, I don't care if the laptop is online or not, but it's the only thing that supports the card right now. Also, the card is not supported in Linux (according to them) don't know if I should tempt a PCI adapter card in the desktop...

to let you all know, I finally gave up after 3 days of trying ang just got the router. worked great! until i switched to xubuntu then started configuring things to my liking... but thats another thread.