Connecting an extra computer to Internet

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Thu, Jul 05, 2007 at 16:27:30 +0100,
  Paul Smith <phhs80 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have a cable-based (not optic) modem/router to connect to the
> Internet (ADSL), which works fine. However, a friend comes in from
> time to time, bringing her laptop. Is there some cheap and easy way of
> letting her laptop to connect to Internet? Unfortunately, I cannot see
> any place in the modem/router to connect an extra cable...

You can buy 8 port layer 2 switches for about $20 including shipping.

You can buy a wireless router for about $45 including shipping. (You can even
flash it with something like ddwrt or openwrt if you want to have low level
access to the device.)

You can install a nic card (for something like $15) in your existing computer
and have it route packets and do NAT for the laptop.