My original setup was direct (SuSE 8.2)... cable into Surfboard modem eth out into the laptop. Feed in the addresses as per the technicians documentation and away you go.
Current setup is modem into Linksys WRT54g switch which does dhcp/nat etc. and gives me wireless as well as 4 wired. Feed the addresses into the Linksys box and let it give you an address and it deals with everything else. Works like a champ and I don't even have to change my network setup between work and home... Currently 256k/10G plan... will probably switch to 2m/5G plan... plans cost the same but the cable modem rental is cheaper and my maximum monthly usage so far has been 700Mb... (yes, I know it's wasted on me etc. but there you go). Carl
