i'll try to keep this as simple as possible.  but before i do, let me tell you where i was getting hung up.  i kept thinking about the router's involvement and how in the world can addressing take place twice on a wireless adapter, etc.  the lesson here is, don't think about it! ;)  the router settings are insignificant.

anyway, here's the setup:

machine001 (has internet connection)
machine00x (just another machine connected to the router)
router

here's what you do:

machine001:
 . open up the connection properties you wish to share (the network connection that connects directly to the internet)
 . click the advanced tab and check 'Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection'
 . under 'Home networking connection', select 'Wireless Network Connection'
 . click 'OK' to save the changes

this now sets your wireless adapter address to 192.168.0.1.  you can confirm this by opening up the adapter's properties and checking out its TCP/IP settings. this is now your gateway to the internet for all other machines connected to the router.

connect to the internet and do ipconfig /all and make note of the DNS Servers (you'll need to input these on any subsequent machines)

connect to the wireless router. (yes, that's it)

we're done with machine001 :)

machine00x:
 . open up the properties of your wireless adapter.
 . go into the TCP/IP settings of the wireless adapter.
 . tick the 'Use the following IP address' option and assign that machine another ip on the same subnet as the gateway, but do not use the same one as the gateway.  for example, use 192.168.0.2 (notice the last number changed), let your subnet mask be 255.255.255.0 (default), then enter 192.168.0.1 as the gateway. and finally, under the 'Use the following DNS server addresses', enter the DNS addresses you got from the previous ipconfig results from machine001.
 . connect to the router and you should now have access to the net through machine001!! :)

that's it, no other router configuration. doesn't matter if DHCP is turned on in the router or not.

if you're experiencing problems still then it's probably a firewall issue, so make sure you allow the necessary traffic to come in and out as requested by the other machines.

that's really all there is to it, i now have 3 machines and a ps3 hooked up thru the router this way. just remember to assign all the machines unique ip addresses.

hopefully this will help someone else out there.

no need for a $200 EVDO router either :)

security, where i am, isn't an issue. and yeah, i've looked at the evdo router solution recently.  it's kinda of expensive tho, plus it shouldn't be necessary as it was working before.  was hoping someone could shed some light one why it isn't working.  i've read multiple tutorials online, and just about all of them involve a hard wire into the router from the ICS machine and i never had to do this back in the day.

Hey all!

my mac mini has this peculiar habit of powering on/off the audio as it is requested by the OS.  if i play a movie or music or anything, it's fine. but once there's no audio request from the os for about a minute (maybe less) it powers down the output resulting in an annoying click or pop in the speakers (just like if you manually turn them off) and then when any other sound is played (either by clicking something, emptying trash... ANY sound) it clicks the output back ON which leads to yet another annoying click/pop from my speakers. thinking that this is some kind of 'green-friendly' power setting that shuts the port down while not being used, i tried snooping around the preferences to change such a setting to be ALWAYS ON as to eliminate this annoying popping/clicking of my speakers all day long.  i was unable to find any such thing.  i've tried googling this issue but haven't come up with much outside of ppl having NO SOUND issues due to a poorly seated plug, but as this is straight from the factory and the sound does work just fine while playing constant sources (music/videos) i doubt this is the case.

if anyone can help with this issue i'd be greatly appreciative as i'm completely new to this mac format.

TIA :D

[update]
this may be well known and frustrating for those of you who are adept in mac, but i'm just learning. i started poking around in these preference files (which are just xml files that hold individual app and systems prefs) haven't found anything yet, but i would think that if there is such an editable setting it'd either be in here or would need to be added into one of these files.  i've since learned of an app that reads all pref files in a nice little GUI called plist edit.  i actually broke down and called apple support.  they had no quick solution to this and told me i'd hear back from them within a couple days or so with a fix (hopefully).  i'll keep this thread updated if i get a solution
[/update]