What I want to do is use a crossover CAT5 cable between two devices and share the internet connection on the first with the second. Two different scenarios, in both instances I got messages indicating that there were problems with the assigned IP address.

Scenario 1: I have two laptops, both of which are folding madly away for the Flyertalk Folding at Home team (curing cancer, etc.. see my sig line for details). Neither are on a network, but one is hooked up to a phone line. I plan to set it to autodial on a schedule, and I want the other to piggyback and upload completed work when it does. Any reason why those two can't be linked with the crossover and then have the dialup work?

Scenario 2: my pretty new xbox 360 needs an internet connection so 12 year olds in Taiwan can crush me in COD2. I (a) won't spend $100 to get the proprietary M$ USB adapter (no other USB adapter will work as you cannot load drivers, so it is that or use the cat5 jack) and (b) I haven't gotten around to running cat 5 to that part of the house. So I want to connect the xbox 360 with the crossover cable to my laptop which is connected to my wireless network.

Both seem like plug and play no brainers, but when I click on share internet connection I get error messages back in both situations. Anybody have any words of wisdom?

Thanks, TJ