How to connect 2 home PCs ?

In article , Anna Baum
says...

How to connect 2 home PCs ?

Four, or five ways that I can think of.

I have a Win Me. I have cable connection.

Does that computer connect to the modem by an Ethernet cable, or USB?

I am NOT technical.

I have 2 questions

1. I bought a small Netgear Ethernet hub. Since it is over a year I
do not have support for it.

How can I connect 2 Pcs ?

If you are willing to pay an additional fee, typically $5 or $6 per month,
your cable provider may sell an extra IP address. In that case, each of the
two computers connects to the cable modem through the hub, and each will
obtain its own IP address.

2. My OE emails are MOST important.
Will I able to access all my OE emails in both PC from any PC ?
Can I use the both PC's as a back up each other ? for all my OE mails
in case one of them dies.
How can I achieve this ?

Forget the extra IP address. If you want to share files, you need to at
least run ICS. Windows ME comes with ICS. You will need a second Ethernet
adapter in the Internet connected computer (if you already have one for the
cable modem), and one Ethernet adapter for each additional computer on the
LAN. Connect one CAT 5 patch cord from each Ethernet adapter to the hub.

The computer connected to the Internet will be called the "gateway"
computer. On that computer, you will not bind "Client for Microsoft
Networks", or "File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks" to the
TCP/IP protocol for the Internet connection. Please, that is important for
security. When you configure the protocol that way, Windows complains, and
offers to install a protocol; you can tell it, "No", and it will proceed.

Please post back with some more details about your equipment. Is the cable
modem USB, or Ethernet? Do the computers already have Ethernet adapters? You
can tell by the RJ-45 ports; they look similar to the RJ-11 telephone jacks
on modem cards, but are slightly larger.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

Once again I am NOT technical

You might become so if you keep doing things like this!

Hmmm. You posted through Google groups? I wonder if they can follow this
thread. I cross posted it to the microsoft.public.windowsme.networking
group, and set the follow ups to that group. There are some experts in that
group who might be able to assist you.

--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint