Network woes
 

Ok i have 2 computers, one is my familys and has windows 98, one is mine and has windows XP home. The family pc has a usb modem on it, it connects directly to DSL internet.

Now ICS on windows 98 PC refuses to work with my XP Home so i am using ports. I have a list of ports that all my programs use but i am unsure on how to open or activate the ports so they can be used.

I dont use firewalls, so its not that.

What do i need to do to make sure these ports are open? None of my programs that dont allow me to directly edit there port settings are connecting.

Windows allows all outgoing ports by default, meaning it won't try to block them natively. You would have to have a program (zone alarm, etc) to do that. Why not just get a router and set both of the computers to go through it? It would be easier and would not require that the Windows 98 machine be on 100% of the time for the connection sharing to work.