Jon -

But you have a dhcp server and an ADSL router. That's obviously the way to go if your needs justify more than just a simple hookup of a few Windows machines. ICS and the built in Windows simple networking are seriously limited when you attempt to get into more complex management. Some additional options can be obtained by using a server version of Win2K or WinXP, but usually to make full use of the added stuff you'll need some more hardware.

Robin -

Information on address ranges comes largely from Microsoft KB article 308007: "How to troubleshoot home networking in Windows XP." An oops here - I apparently didn't learn this as well as I thought. The BEUI net uses 169.... idents, not 168. ones. The 168 apparently came from an older (Win95/Win3.11) article that I didn't copy, or maybe I just imagined it wrong. (I did say it wasn't particularly useful for me at present.)

John