You can't connect two computers directly to each other with a regular(straight-thru) ethernet cable; you must use what's called a cross-over cable. I rechecked the thread and see that you mentioned...

a hub will work for you only if your ISP is setup to assign 2 or more ip addresses for your account/cable modem

most isp co's only assign 1 ip address for access - this is something that you're...

linksys is typically pretty good; they we're purchased by Cisco which is the major player in internet backbone/isp equipment

1st let me recommend u either learn how to use the help files from windows (which by-and-large i find to be infuriating) or purchase a book on WinME; alternatively you may want to check w/ur locale...

dont 4get DOS's ftp...

here's a www reference...
http://html.tucows.com/webmaster/tut/dosftp.html

if ur still interested in a browser based remote access tool try checking out www.expertcity.com - we use it @work & its pretty kewl 8)