Greetings All thanks in advance for replying and reading:

I am having difficulties merging two workgroups on 2 seperate networks. I am a newbie to networking, and following is my network setup:

I have a laptop with 2 NIC's. 1 is the builtin NIC and the other is a usb NIC [usb to lan].

(*) My ISP connects directly into the builtin NIC of the laptop. [no cable modem or nothing of that sort. DHCP assigns me my IP ADDRESS]
(*) The 2nd NIC on my laptop connects to a 6 port router. [the internet connection from the first NIC card is shared through the 2nd NIC card]
(*) Router connects to a Desktop.

Both my laptop and desktop are able to share the internet connection this way.

From my Laptop I can view the workgroup that contains all the computers that are connected to the ISP LAN plus the 2ndary Desktop.

However, from the Desktop's workgroup I can only see the Laptop, and not the other PC"s. I would like some help to figure out a way to share the workgroup that MY laptop can see with my desktop

IP address of NIC#1 on Laptop: assisgned by DHCP

IP address of USB NIC#2 on Laptop: 192.168.0.1
-- subnet mask 255.255.255.0
--default gateway left blank.

IP address of NIC on Desktop:assigned by DHCP from router.
-- subnet mask 255.255.255.0
-- default gateway 192.168.0.1

Now before everyone gives me the obvious answer: Connect the ISP to router then connect the computers from the router. Well easier said then done. I lose my electricity about 7 times a day, each time its gone for an hour. this leaves me w/out any internet for 7 hours daily. I cant' afford that. This is why I'm going through my laptop.

I have attached a simple drawing to this post to descibe pictorially what I am doing.

battery back up. This will not only keep you from losing power but will keep your IP from changing when you power back up! $50-100.

Thanks for the reply, I guess you are right about the power backup. Though I do have a power backup with electricity being so troublesom it doesn't always get the proper recharging it requires. Regardless seems this problem might be unsolvable. Or rather doing it the right way is a better alternative.

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