A nice cheap setup that I use is an inexpensive hub and an old junked 386 box with a DOS program running off a floppy to work as a router. It's very cheap, easy, secure and low maintenience. I haven't even had to touch the router box in over a year...It just keeps on runnin'. Here's a link to an article on how to set it up: http://networkinghelp.org/articles/zzace/iproute.php3 For your NICs and hub: check out pricewatch.com