Sharing Broadband with laptop

[DougL]

Hi I'm sure theres an easy solution to this but i can't seem to see the wood for the trees.

Desktop PC running WinXP
Laptop running WinXP

Just installed broadband via USB modem on desktop, a month or so ago I set up my laptop to share files etc via a crossover cable which is working fine.
On installing broadband and enabling ICS on desktop(host) i cannot get the laptop to connect to the internet. I have enabled dial a connection when another PC on the network wants to access the internet. Both PC's can ping one another.
When i tried to connect to the internet from the laptop the connection box briefly came up on the host PC but the laptop did not connect.
A friend suggests i dispense with ICS and just set the laptop default gateway to the host PC IP address. Unfortunately my daughter has my laptop for a few days so i can't test that. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Doug

[glc]

Can you get an Ethernet modem and a router? That will make things a lot easier and better.

[wintomato]

this should be a relatively straight forward thing.. in theory. i have set up 3 pcs to connect to the internet via a usb modem on 1 of them, this was with win2k, and the wizards pretty much did it. i have also done the same with xp. problems usually arise if you have already had some other kind of connection on the desktop pc previously. dont know if this is the case.
glc is right, its the way forward, but what you've got should do the job.
make sure the laptop IE is set to auto detect settings.
judging from what you've said, you prob know all this already.

[DougL]

Thanks for the replies, i'll have another play around and if not sucessful will follow GLC's suggestion.