INTERNET
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your modem
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router
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| \_______network card on computer 2
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network card on computer 1
the lines here are category-5 ethernet cable, which looks like telephone wire but has 8 pins, not 2 or 4, and as such is wider. right now, your modem should have a cable going to the wall and a cat5 cord going to your computer. when you are ready to make the network, unplug that cord from your computer and put it in the "uplink" port of a router. then, plug a cat5 wire from each computer into one of the numbered client ports on the router (number of ports depends on router, usually 4 or 8).
the router splits your connection into a wide-area segment and a local-area segment. on the wide-area-network (WAN), your router will have the IP address of your internet connection, which is likely the address your computer has now. thus no matter how many computers are attached to your router, it will appear to the outside world as ONE computer with one IP address. on the local-area-network (LAN), the router has another IP address that is visible only within your network (probably 192.168.1.1 as this is somewhat of an industry standard). it will then assign any computers you connect to it IP addresses like 192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3, etc. Once again, these addresses are only within your local network and are separate from the outside world, which sees your router as a unique device like your single computer is now.
to configure your router, all you have to do is go on one of the computers connected to it and type the ip address of the router in internet explorer. if you try to do this at a friend's house, for example, it will either not work or it will bring up your friend's router as it is an address that exists solely within your network.
hope that wasnt too confusing.... i might have given you too much info, sorry!
