Internet connection woes solved.

Ok so here I am with no DSL, since I dropped off PRTC's service, and my only link to the internet is my trusty wireless provider USB modem. Decent speeds, portability and a two year contract. What's a man to do when he has a desktop and a laptop in his house? Well he has two choices:

1. Switch said modem between the machines when the need arises to get his Internet fix.
2. Configure Internet Connection Sharing between the machines so doesn't have to do Step 1.

Setting Internet Connection Sharing between machines is somewhat of as tricky proposition if your broadband modem is not USB because 99.9 of all machines have only 1 ethernet port available. And you'll need that ethernet port to connect between the two machines unless you go the ad-hoc wireless route in Vista. I don't know if you can pull that trick in XP. If you do, let me know in the comments.

A word of advice: make sure the PC that handles the Internet connection is properly protected, firewalled with antivirus, spyware and whatnot. I cannot stress the importance of this, since you won't have the benefit of having a router protect your machine from whatever evil lurks in thee Internets.

Anyhoo got my handy USB connected and running in the desktop so in my connection's properties I set up Internet Connection Sharing and have it go through my Local Area Connection. Now there are things that you need to get through that connection namely http, http secure traffica and pop3 if you are so inclined. The other types are optional, but I wouldn't recommend them unless you know what you're doing. Then I get my trusty ethernet cable connected to my laptop and here I am, posting this to you.

Doing this under Windows is fairly easy. Under Linux should be a piece of cake, but I haven't tried it yet. My distro has the instructions so I might want to check that out since Linux is way more secure. So far, so good and I get to see my Samba Shares between both machines.

In another completely different subject, if you have any good taste in films, go and watch There Will Be Blood. This film is so fucking intense, my heart was racing every time Daniel Day Lewis was on the screen, because his character is one unpredictable sociopathic motherfucker. The movie is an adaptation of a novel but the director has made a terrific job at it. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood does a great job scoring this and contributes to the feeling I had while watching this movie. Between this and No Country For Old Men, my film need have been sated. If Day Lewis and Javier Bardem don't get their Oscars this year, I'll be very fucking pissed.