Area Network Amiga to W,Xp

[Ilwrath]

C'mon people.... this isn't rocket science.

You connect an Amiga to a network the same way you do any other machine.  (And I should know... I have two Windows machines, a linux boxen, a TiVo, an SGI, and two Amigas on mine...  I am thinking about somehow getting a C64 on too, but that's for another post.)

Anyhow, it sounds like you have it figured out, Jump2b....

You need connectivity (TCP/IP) before any clients (SaMBa, FTP, etc) will work.  

For that, you hook the ADSL into the uplink on the router, and then the PC and Amiga into the regular ports on the router.  Make sure you have the router configured properly (most easily done from the PC by following the instructions that come with the router) and the Amiga can most likely use DHCP (from Miami, Genesis, or whatever TCP/IP package you use), and be done.  

Once you get the PC on-line and able to surf the internet, you'll know your ADSL and router are working right.  Then get the Amiga to go out and hit the internet.  Then you'll know that the router, Amiga, and PC all have valid IP setups.  This is 3/4ths of the battle.  The PC and Amiga should also be able to "ping" each other here.  (You may choose to test this to make sure, but I haven't seen a time when this wasn't the case.)  

Once you know the physical networking is in place, then you can mess around with one of the many on-line Samba tutorials, or say "screw this" and just transfer files over FTP or any other IP-based protocol.  Personally, I haven't had great luck with Samba on the Amiga, and I simply run an FTP daemon on my Linux box, and AmiFTP from the Amiga to send and recieve through FTP.  Samba on the linux box maps well to Windows XP and Windows 2000 shares, though, so it is possible, I just haven't messed with it enough.  

[Ilwrath]

i dont have a router i have two ethernet cards, if you have any ideas feel free to suggest them on this topic

Well, regardless of the situation, you want to put first things first.  

Basic TCP/IP connectivity MUST be working before any other stuff stands a prayer.  This is why it's critical to get your router configured before even bothering to mess with file sharing options (poking at those settings early on will only mess you up later.)

In your case, AxE, your "router" will be in software on the Windows machine, and your "uplink" is the network card that goes to the DSL, and your "hub port 1" is the other network card (crossover -> Amiga).  You must make sure that whatever software you're using on the PC to make it route packets is configured right.  It can be a real pain, and sometimes confusing, but it must be sorted out before anything else will work.  

Which brings me to my next point....  Each network is a little different.  There isn't really a "magic" template that can be copied from one instance and will work perfectly in another.  There are different setups and needs to be addressed.  This does take at least some minor amounts of research and understanding.  A pre-built product like a packaged router contains instructions, and from those, you can get the PC up and running, and get a feel for how you'd adapt that configuration to work on the Amiga.  

With a homebuilt system, you have more variables.  Microsoft's Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) doesn't always magically configure itself right.  You may need to get in there and get your hands dirty with a few on-line tutorials, and learn a little bit about how TCP/IP works.  It's your "cost" for saving a few bucks.  It's not a question that can be answered by a general "how do I do it?" post.  (If it were you'd be seeing FAQs on it, right??)  There's a lot of ways to do it.  Some will have more in common with your situation than others.

If you aren't familiar with networking, your easiest option is surely to pick up a Linksys DSL share router.  They're generally pretty cheap, easy on power, and much easier to configure than a software router.  I currently run a software router, and have thought about going to a LinkSys just for space, heat, noise and electricity savings, alone.