Mindspring MaxDSL+Win98 ICS+3 Clients

Just got my Mindspring DSL.
Originally had the LAN directly connected to the first computer, A.
Installed the modem onto A via NIC 1.
Later, installed NIC 2 into A for LAN access.
Network was doing nothing...A computer could no longer see B C or D.
Removed NIC 2 from A and removed then reinstalled all my network services and clients except ICS. Got my DSL back up and working just fine.
Today, installed NIC2 again. Made sure I bound ICS to NIC2. Set NIC1 to Auto IP, etc, and NIC2 to 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0
I can get com B to see A via NetBeui. However, I cannot get any TCP/IP connections (ping) to work. Machine B is Win2K. If I set IP to 192.168.0.2/255.255.255.0, gateway to 192.168.0.1 DNS to 192.168.0.1 the computer tries to FIND the connection, however it times out. If I set it to all automatic, it times out the instant Netscape opens, or as soon as ping starts it's pinging.
All I want is to avoid having to get one of those expensive hardware routers... Would I be better off using Sygate instead of ICS? Or should I go for the hardware router?

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Michael

You need to remove ICS then reinstall it so that the shared NIC is your NIC1 and NIC2 for local network. On your W2k machine you should set it to obtain IP automatically and enable NetBEUI over TCP/IP.