[andrewas]

Are you sure you have the right cable. You need a cat5 crossover cable, but the ones you buy will be straight cables, unless you specify differently. Unless you have a hub, in which case you need 2 cat5 straight cables.

Assuming the hardwares right, you should just have to specify the IP addresses to use. So:

Start->settings->network connections.

LAN connection, properties.

Internet protocol, properties.

Set 'use the following IP address' and enter an IP address of 192.168.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 . On the other machine, enter the IP of 192.168.0.2 and the same subnet. Leave default gateway blank (if it insists give it 0.0.0.0) and ignore the DNS settings.