Here's sort of an old article at Microsoft for Internet Connection Sharing on XP which sort of a step by step walks through configurations. Maybe look through it to see if you perhaps see something that has been overlooked. Could be your usb connection wont cross over to the network card, but I've seen others use it that way with usb wifi adapters, which are pretty much the same deal. Really pretty simple for a network guy,, If you have a bit of a geeky neighbor, maybe ask for some help. It could be that the supplied usb cards driver software purposely wont bridge to the nic to defeat sharing and then you would need a card adapter which is on the bus like a real nic would be. Here is a link that might be useful: Internet Connection Sharing with Windows XP

OK, I have an issue that does not allow me to purchase without over researching a product. So I did consider a few brands. I really like Miele, and they do have a larger unit. Nothing like the size of these, but I don't think you need something as big as these Samsung units to wash a comforter. Although I keep going back to Miele, the issue of their warranty and the lack of local people to sell and service the units takes them out of the running. I did look into Asko, but the small size and the bad reviews (over many years) makes them just an interesting read. I had a hard time deciding between LG and Samsung. I chose Samsung because of their Diamond drum technology. Although I was unable to find out much about it, it was similar to the honeycomb drum idea of Miele. That really closed the deal for me. I really felt that more manufacturers should have put more into their drum designs and make that information available. Sadly, only two lines have taken drum technology seriously and serious enough to flaunt it to the public. I ended up with the largest Samsung units because of the steam and the internet connectivity. (And frankly the deal I got.) I was hoping that if there was a problem, Samsung could just hook into the machine and tell me what is wrong. I'm not sure they can do that, but they can certainly update the units over the wireless. I would say that I was also impressed with the anti vibration technology. I wish they had explained the difference between the regular antivibration and the upgraded antivibration of these units. I imagine it is some computer sensing thing. I was also impressed with the warranty on the motors and the 2 year warranty. Oh, I just registered my units and got an additional 3 months warranty for registering. Thanks Samsung. I would add an extra year on my own by purchasing with Amex and eliminating the purchase of extended warranty. I looked into Speed Queen because they are American. Solid units but lack the modern technology and efficiency I was looking for. Rough sturdy brutes was all I could imagine from what I could find out about these products. I think the companies do themselves a disservice by not putting out all the information they can on their products. This is one case and point. I went as far as looking into purchasing commercial units, but when all is said and done, I felt that the Samsung units were a better deal. Service and warranty work is much different for commercial than on consumer models. Here is a really cool washing machine I found that I really wanted to get. I have a friend in CA who used to own Laundry Mats. He said, "That's a commercial unit. What do you need a commercial unit for?" Well, it looks so cool and is so well engineered etc. It was too much of a machine for my needs, but I really would have loved to have one. The Crossover Washer. (http://www.laundrylux.com/crossover.html) The world's first small chassis washer engineered to commercial laundry standards for your business needs. I think for the person who wants to have what no one else has, these units would be an interesting choice. Here is some more information on the Crossover: 3 Engineered to be superior to all competitors 3 15,000 cycle machine life design 3 3 OPL liquid chemical injection ports and signals 3 3 compartment soap drawer 3 4 professional wash programs + 2 cycle options 3 Field adjustable water levels 3 Top quality SKF bearings in heavy duty assembly 3 3 seals with 5 lips 3 Professional grade 8-point suspension 3 Pump-drain standard 3 Solid steel counter-weights�no concrete 3 Energy Star compliant The costs were about 2,000 a piece or less from what I remember. Stunningly beautiful beasts these are. They are made I believe by LaundryLux. I also looked at Miele Little Giants. Just amazing little laundry units, but way out of my price range for what I want to spend. I think these are made for people with yachts. These are also stunningly beautiful. The bottom line is I spent months looking at units. For me, with the space that I had and the money I wanted to spend, I settled on the Samsung. I had to use my Samsung units again tonight as the baby had an "out of diaper" experience. Not something for the faint of heart. Loved I could go and select sanitize on the computer screen and choose extra rinses and steams and prewashes and super hots etc. If they had nuclear radiation I would have chosen that too, but as of now, it is not an option on my units. I got a 3 hour cycle and trust me that is exactly what the job called for. I think I'm very happy right now with what I purchased. Look, as long as the darn units stay working without needing service etc, anything you buy will be fine. Again, I'm not happy about having to stand on a stool to see the dryer screens, but it really is not a big problem. The anti vibration on these really works great and the noise level is very good. The calming music the machines play to signal the end of the cycle is still OK with me and I'm not ready to beat the machine to death if it plays that tune one more time. Just if anyone wants to see how these machines do on a soiled white one piece baby garment, here is how it just came out of the washer. I don't think I can believe how clean and white this is. You cannot see where the mess was. I have had experience in the past with my other machine where the white clothing was stained yellow after such an incident. All I used was about 1/4 of the recommended amount of ECOS plus natural liquid from Sam's and a tiny amount of delft liquid softener. No bleach. I did hit it with some Oxy prewash spray before putting it in. Look, I have a laundry upstairs that I am doing. I decided to make it a "sound proof" room because of my experience with my old front loader. It was loud! Probably had gotten worse over the years because the bearings were going. So I double sheet rocked with green glue and put heavy clay on the backs of the electrical boxes. I put in a sound proof floor which I am waiting to tile right now. Well, I did all this because of my fear of the noise I would get from the front load machines. I think had I placed these Samsung units upstairs, the sound proofing would have been overkill. I'm hoping the GE unit I have for upstairs will be as quiet. I bet most of the better machines will be quiet. I think that the other companies caught up with Meile and have incorporated many of the concepts and bring these machines at a value price. Will they last the 20 years Miele says theirs will? I don't know, but these machines have a longer warranty then Miele and they can be found everywhere. This means that your chance of getting service should be good.

The 2.1 amp rating, while not clarified in the specs, usually is a combination of the total of the two USB connectors, which may be often be asymmetric - .5 amp on one, and 1.6 amp on the other. You need to look at the charge requirements of the devices you are plugging in to the USB charge ports. A cellphone can charge off a low current supply but a tablet requires a much higher current availability to charge as quickly. The device connected to the USB port determines it's rate of charge, regulates it, and is only limited by the supply current available to it - the available current is only a "limiting factor" and it does not force the charge rate to be any faster. Part of all this conundrum is that the USB port was never designed to serve as a "charge source" but to just to simply supply current to slave devices connected to the USB port. But then manufacturers soon found they could eliminate the cost of a wall-wart transformer by making it "USB rechargeable". You might also want to look at the "plug in" type devices that provide a feed-thru for AC and USB ports for charging - being external they can often provide better heat sinks and current availabilities.

I much prefer the RCA (Audiovox) adapters, from the link posted by sacto_diane that simply plug in, as opposed to the hard wired outlets. While somewhat of a convenience for consumers, what this is really all about is that mfgs have found they could shave off the cost of including AC adapters for their products simply by saying they can be recharged through any USB connector. My MP3 player wants me to run my notebook computer for hours just to recharge it's battery?! USB was designed as a PC communication interface, whose protocol could also provide limited DC power to the connected device, basically for communications and later for limited power applications - it was not meant to be charger circuit.