share my printer between 2 computers and surf with 2 computers at same time

Hello all,

People probably asked you a thousand times but I can't manage to
gather the information I need by searching the web so here is my
situation:

I have a pc with windows XP home SP3 upstairs and a HP Deskjet 916c
printer which is upstairs too. Downstairs I have a notebook with
windows xp professional and also a motorola sb5100E modem.

What I do now to surf the web with my notebook is pull the cable (UTP
with RJ45 connector) that comes from my pc upstairs out of my modem
(which is downstairs) and then connect my notebook with another
shorter UTP cable to the modem. For printing I go upstairs with my
notebook and take the usb cable out of my pc to plug it into my
notebook. I know there's a much easier way without having to plug out
cables all the time but I'm a total noob when it comes to networking
issues.

To summarise, I would like to:
1a. avoid swapping cables all the time
1. share one printer between 2 computers without having both computers
turned on all the time (one computer may be off while printing from
the other).
2. be able to surf the net with both computers simultaneously is not a
must but if it's easy to setup it's always welcome.

What kind of hardware would I have to buy for this? I read about
switches, hubs, routers, print servers and I don't have a clue what
the difference is, let go how to set it up. Important thing to add: I
like to play online games from time to time and I read that routers
can be quite tricky when you want to forward ports so I'm a bit
reluctant about routers unless you can convince me otherwise (I find
it already hard enough trying to figure out how to program my
firewall).

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.
.

Relevant Pages

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