I would set up the internet dialup on the linux box and connect the three XP boxes in the house to it, but I only have a winmodem and as I'm hopefully getting broadband soon it's not really worth the hastle. <<< I'd agree there. The performance of dialup lines is bad enough without sharing them, and setting up a WinModem is a bit fraught even if there are drivers. I've just been through it with an Intel modem for which there are several sets of drivers out there, not all of which work. Particularly the ones on the Intel site!
While I mention broadband, a slightly off topic question. My local telphone exchange gets ADSL enabled on June 4th but in a couple of months a local company starts "trials" of WiFi internet access based on 802.11g with at least a 10 meg connection for around the same price as ADSL! Do you think I should go for ADSL or wait and risk connecting to the fast, but new service which could be unreliable? I'd like to get a short term ADSL contract until I see how the service pans out, but I can't afford the hardware for both as I want to use a router or an access point for my network, not an ADSL "modem" or Wireless Card. What do you think? <<< If you're being offered the full 50MBit/s of 802.11g at the price of ADSL it sounds attractive. You're unlikely to use wireless for everything so you'll need a regular Ethernet router somewhere. If you get a standard one you can plug either a DSL or a wireless modem into it, but either of the latter could end up redundant if you later change to the other option. (I don't know what provider interface is needed for wireless so it could well continue to be useful.). A router such as the LinkSys EtherFast (available from Dabs) gives you 8 fast LAN ports, a fast WAN port, DHCP, NAT, remote admin, etc. etc. with a nice browser-based management interface, for less than £80. The only warning I'd make is that LinkSys don't support Linux (even though it's largely irrelevant what you connect to it), so don't mention the dreaded L-word if you ring for tech support.
Regarding 802.11g, I read recently that the standard isn't yet fixed and early adopters are warned that their equipment may end up incompatible. No idea how likely that may be.
-- GT