My Linux machine is not yet connected to the internet! I have a BT Voyager 100 ADSL USB modem and connect through AOL on my windoze box.
With that USB modem, it might be easier to have your linux box as the primary machine to the net, moving the USB modem onto the linux box, adding a router or hub for a ethernet connection for the Windows machine to your linux box. I bought a Linksys router for $49 at Wally Mart. Works very well. No need for samba to do ethernet.
The best setup would be to have a plain ole external DSL modem doing all the dialup and handshaking, plug the router to it, then plug all your machines to the router. Linux likes that. Even Network Mangler can manage that setup quite nicely and you can yum until your butt falls off. :)
Linux (UNIX) seems to like devices best that are standalone, like external modems, requiring no system overhead to make them run. If that USB modem requires Windows drivers to work at all, then it's robbing the machine of a few cpu cycles and you're also tied to the evil empire forever, just to talk to the net. -Ric
