On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 2:00 PM, Michael Hennebry <hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu> wrote: >>> >> Why do you want to connect the two computers like this? It is usually >> more trouble than it's worth unless you want to use the first computer >> as a firewall or something. Just connect both of them to your router >> and everything should work fine. > > I don't know that I do. > I've not done anything with a router since connecting > my old computer to CenturyLink's router/modem. > > I want the second computer to not have its own global IP address. > It will at least occasionally run Windows. > I'd prefer not to assume that Windows will > not try to fetch an IP address behind my back. Routers and modems from ISPs are sometimes different things and sometimes integrated. If you are getting a public IP on your first computer you either just have a modem, or if it is is also a router it is running in bridged mode. You can add a separate router ahead of both computers. To make things more complicated there are also some combo devices where the router side can split bridged/NAT mode to supply both some number of static public IPs and a private subnet (but if you had one of those you would probably know it). -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com