Seting up a home networkFollow

Ok not sure what all information I'll need to post but here goes...

I've been playing Everquest on one computer for a while now and this past weekend decided to pick up another PC so the wife and I can play together for the first time in 5+ years. Unfortunately we live in the country and do not have access to DSL or cable modems. Dealing with dial up is a pain but we have really good phone lines and have not had nearly the amount of trouble with it that we have had living in other places. So we decided to set them up as a home network to share the dial up on one phone line and leave the other line open for calls.

1st comp - Pent. 4 processor with Windows XP Home, store bought ethernet card bought and installed(working correctly)
2nd comp - Athlon 2400+ processor with Windows XP Professional, ethernet connection built into the motherboard.

Connected my cable that the local computer store gave me when I bought the computer from them(they say it is the correct one but I have no clue, and it's the only store for hours around), connected the two computers and ran through the networking wizard as told to on both computers. I now get the connection icon but am not sending anything from the client computer. I ping the host computer and am getting 100% packet loss. I have tried it both ways and each time I am getting this. Now I have set up two computers this way before but did not have any problems. I know squat about networking and the computer store isn't open til Monday night! Would love any advice/instructions on how to fix this? Thanks all.

I am not an expert in networking, However, as an alternative to cable, you could get Sattelite. Altough expensive initally, the costs do settle down (bu they are still very high)