computer help

if you have a network port, then you don't need a network card.
If you don't then you need to get a network card, a hub and a cable.
if you don't know what a network socket looks like, look on the back of your xbox.
If you have one on your comp its most likely located under the parallel port which is the big long one with loads of holes in.

You need to get a hub and cable from the start because ethernet (using cat-5 cable- you may know this from some peoples home-made speaker cable etc) needs to be 'crossed over' for one device to talk to another, hence the cross-over cable I mentioned before. The cross over cable essentially does what a hub does, but it does not allow you to connect more than one device so it wouldn't work for you.

So to clarify, you need to:
Check if you have a network port on your pc
If yes, forget the network card, if no:
buy a network card
buy a hub
buy a terminated ethernet cable

Then if you go for xbox live, you just need to get another ethernet cable and plug the xbox into a spare port on the hub.
You can get all this stuff from the networking section of PC world. Buy the cheapest stuff and don't listen if they try to tell you you need anything better. Should cost you around £20 ish

 

thanks!!

that's me sorted.

broadband here I come..