2 NIC's 1 Network?????

First off, thanks for any and all comments.

Here's the deal. I use my WinME box to surf the web, work
etc. and I also have a Linux box setup on my LAN to play
on. I have the cat5 from the cable modem going directly
into NIC #1 and the cat5 from NIC #2 going to the hub
that's connected to the Linux system ( I don't want this
LAN to even see the internet ).

Logging in to the local network is no problem. When I
launch IE are OE they will time-out. Pinging an URL comes
up as unknown host and pinging an internet IP always times
out.

The only fix that seems to work and sucks is.
When I disabling the second NICs hardware profile, then re-
enable it, I am able to go and use both networks.

I've tweaked every network connection property that I now
of.

Again any help would be great.

PS. ICS not running, IE 6.0 SP1, OE 6