Wired connections between two computers

I have recently bought a second computer for older gaming:

ECX P4VMM2 motherboard
Pentium 4 Northwood 2.0 GHz
256 MB of DDR333 RAM
52x LG CD-ROM drive
3Com 3C905B-TX Fast EtherLink XL 10/100 Ethernet card
300W PSU
Sapphire Radeon R9550
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
Windows 98SE
Western Digital Caviar WD400BB 40GB hard drive, dated 2004.

Which cost a massive £42 (and that's not including the 10% refund we got after the initial hard drive failed, see more on that later), and is running off an ancient HP D2804A 14" CRT monitor we had stored - manufactured in mid 1995.

I would like to use this computer with the internet, and the best way I can foresee is to do that via a wired connection - the router is in WEP mode and we do not wish to change that, plus a wired connection would be more secure and better than transferring my wireless adaptor around frequently. What are the main types of doing this - bearing in mind that the "base" computer will be the Inspiron 531 listed in my profile, and that connects to the router wirelessly? Which is easiest to set up, and/or cheapest?

As a side note, the original hard drive - a Western Digital Protégé WD200 20 GB drive - failed after 2 hours. Currently it spins up - with a loud 'clack' noise from the head initially - and promptly starts emitting a squeak noise as the disk spins. Every minute or so the drive will spin down, the head will clack and it will spin up again. I know the drive is dead and don't plan on fixing it - if it were even possible - but what exactly is the fault here? I did also once have it exhibiting a total head crash but that only happened once. Even when it did stop the squeaking noise before, I know it's dead as it was very, very slow to format (took 4 hours!), kept freezing the operating system that I'd reinstalled on it (after it initially froze up), and when it stopped the squeaking - which blocked the computer getting through BIOS as it couldn't get SMART info off it - failed the BIOS' SMART tests - yet when I initially ran it, it was perfectly fine apart from the head noise at power up. What could have caused it to fail so quickly? I've had no problems at all with the replacement drive, which is reported at 94% by SpeedFan, so it can't be - at least not entirely - the computer.

EDIT: Would it be acceptable for me to create another account for the other computer?

 

Can't do that, because the router is on a lower floor and we cannot afford to drill holes to transport the cable around, and the mounting costs of that cable etc. Hence why I'm talking about between the two computers My wireless adaptor has 98SE drivers, but those don't support WEP.

 

Well, WEP isn't coming up on the list, but WPA and WPA-PSK do. It could still be the router is blocking the computer, haven't checked that - and the Belkin utility is a pain to try and use anyway.

 

Use WPA-PSK but give it a strong password.

Good luck.

 

I think the WEP key might come up as either Shared Key or Open Key or something like this - does anyone else have experience of using Belkin adaptors that they can compare it to? (my adapter is a 54g v3xxx one)

 

Slightly off-topic, but should I set up another account for that computer?

I'll get the key issue sorted out when I boot the computer up tomorrow, and get the router to accept it (or at least, I hope that sorts the issue!)

 

No, I was referring to setting up another account here for it I have internet now from the wireless adapter, but I would still prefer a cable arrangement for internet use on both at once (ie playing an online game and talking to people) and for the added security this would bring.

 

I now have an Ethernet cable, but have been as so far unable to link the two computers - I can't seem to configure it right. When I enabled ICS initially, it then tried to make my Vista PC connect through the wired port, whilst the internet actually only came through on the wireless adaptor. I have been unable to set up the Vista PC so far so I can use the direct cable properly. Anyone have any ideas?

 

One other option for you is to use a powerline network adapter if that is within your limited budget

 

I don't want to spend any more money when I already have something that should work, but needs setting up.