Hi everyone. I took the dive and bought my first router. I have a cable modem and need to have at least 2 computers with internet access. This will provide eliminate "friction" between my girlfriend and I over internet access. Plus I heard it helps with security even though I have zonealarm.

I bought a Linksys Etherfast cable 4 port router (BEFSR41 v2).

I read page 1 and it said I need to get the following information from my cable internet company:

1: My PCs' Computer name and Workgroup name
2: My broadband-configured PCs' fixed Internet IP address
3: My Subnet Mask
4: My Default Gateway
5: My primary DNS Server address(es)

Will they give this information or is there a way I can get it on my own? TOTAL newbie with this stuff. I mostly just build computers and never did anything like this.
I will give them a call during business hours and see what they have to say.. but any suggestions would be appreciated or a link or 2 for "Router's for Dummies".

The values may all be assigned to you automatically when the router makes the connection. And depending on the intelligence of the router you may not need to know any or some of these.

The necessity of knowing those items depends on the technical details of your internet connection and how dumb your router is. Unless your ISP has a policy against connection sharing they will happily give you all this info and assistance.

Router info

Great. Thanks for the reply. I will give this a go. If I have problems I will contact the cable company.