Networking :: help connecting to windows pc

hi, my setup is an xp laptop with a adsl connection and a wireless card to serve ad-hoc to my pda and other pcs around the house.
i have a aged pentium linux box with dsl that i need to connect to the ethernet port of the laptop.
i made a twist cable and this is ok.
all my mass storage drives (60g and 300g )are connected to the laptop to file serve media around the house and i will need to allow dsl access to these and drives of other workgroup computers, and other machines to access the drives on dsl box (one 3.5g ext2 drive and one 40g ntfs).
when i try to connect the linux box xp give limited or no compatibility warning so i guess i need to put some settings into both machines to get this working.
i have not much knowlege to do this so please can i have some step by step help.

original here.