wiNeed help in setting up a LAN with windows XP and debian
 

Hello. I am totally new to Debian Linux. I have just got a single Debian r3.10a from a Debian Linux book and has installed it into my Acer PC (AMD XP Athlon). I have two HDs in my Acer PC which one has Windows XP home and the other HD was converted to Debian Linux. Before using Debian, I had a small LAN where this Acer PC is connected to a Netgear ethernet hub. I have also a notebook (using Windows XP Pro) connected to a the same hub. Then I have Dell PC which is directly connected to the internet via a USB Cable Modem 351000 (NTL). I connect a ethernet rj45 from this Dell PC to the Netgear ethernet hub.

It seems that since the Acer PC is a Linux machine and will be a stand alone if I choose Linux in a dual boot system. Is there anyway to enable
the Acer Linux machine to access network without plugging out the usb cable from the Dell PC to the Acer PC? I would presumed I would need a router but I am not sure which type is suitable. NTL modem (USB Cable Motorola 351000) is not a dial up type of modem. It is the type that is always connected.

I also do not know how to setup Debian Linux directly to this NTL modem via USB as it kept giving timeout error message. During the setting up of Debian Linux using a direct connection to internet via this NTL modem, I was informed that DHCP autoconfigure has failed. So I tried the manual configuration. I recorded some networking information from the
Windows XP network info and used them back. Network information that I got from Windows XP is IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DHCP server address and DNS server address. During manual DHCP configuration for Debian Linux, I keyed in the IP, subnet mask and default gateway.
Then it asked for host server in which I am not sure what it means so I keyed in the DHCP server. Then it asked for hostname and hostname server. I keyed in kwng and then the DNS server address as hostname server. Is the keying in correct?