how can i make my windows xp a router?
do i need a third party software for that?

Try Googling for "Internet Connection Sharing"

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&...earch&meta=

However this isn't always the best option since its not technically a "proper" router. For that, you will need to buy a separate piece of hardware.

Typically (in the most simplest 'home' type setup) you need this:

A router (with or without ADSL modem built in for broadband access).
A network connection on each client (if the client dont have any, just buy PCI netowrk cards- cost about 5 GBP each).
RJ45 cables to connect it all.

To expand on this if you have more clients you could buy a hub and give connectivity to more clients.

Next step up is "a proper network" lol

In a small office/company/enterprise you'll typically have one server acting as the gateway (a proxy), a domain controller, maybe DHCP/WINS etc (plus other servers that might do things like purely control authentication, act as BDCs -backup domain controllers- etc). Depends on the number clients, existing hardware/architecture.. its hard to exactly quantify.


.... however whatever the size you can generalise and say that all of the clients connect to the gateway/proxy/ADSL router/whatever you want to call it by setting up the "Lan connection" in the browser, and thus use the network connectivity.

S

When the XP machine is multi-homed you can enable routing/IP forwarding with a little registry hack.

Here is Microsoft's KB article about it.

hehe its so easy when you know the answer! lol... good post RA

LOL. There's 'nout wrong with your post Scintex, just covering all the angles.