Is there a router involved in this scenario?  If not, you will need to manually assign IP Addresses and use a switch to connect the four.  Are you trying to just network or connect to the internet?

i have pacbell dsl  to linksys router to  netgear hub then to the 5 computers. 

No need to set the IP Addresses manually, let the DHCP function of the router take care of that.  I iwl assume this is a 4 port router so that means when you use the uplink port, Port #1 is disabled so in effect you only have 3 ports on the router since you have to connect five.

Hardwire  the first three using ports 2, 3 & 4.  Use the uplink port to feed your hub (would have been better if it were a switch) and MANUALLY set the network to receive a dynamic address.

Check this site for some basics and post back with any further issues:

www.homenethelp.com

http://www.theeldergeek.com/quick_guide_to_simple_file_sharing.htm

 

i tried unplugging the dell computer from the hub and plugging directly to the router and set it at dchp. and still does not work.  the ip address says 169.254.100.250 which is different from the usual 192.168.1.1 ??? the lan indicator on the right bottom of screen does show that it is connected but why does it say "local area connection 3?  what happen to 1 and 2

The address of the router is 192.168.1.1 and the first address issued by the router is 192.168.1.100.  Exactly which router do you have?  Have your ttried powering down everything (computers, router, and modem) in that order and then the reverse for powerup waiting about 5 minutes on each device?

Found this in the Knowledge Base:

If your local IP address is returned as 169.254.y.z, with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0, the IP address was assigned by the Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) feature of Windows XP Professional. This means that TCP/IP is configured for automatic configuration, that no DHCP server was found, and no alternate configuration is specified. This configuration has no default gateway for the interface.

Article # 314067

Message Edited by jmwills on 02-20-2004 07:27 AM

what is the website for the knowledge base?

The Microsoft Knowledge Base can be found here.