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Only do this if you know what you are doing.

A network card is commonly know as a Network Interface Card, NIC for short.
NIC's come in two BUS types a BUS Type in the long wide slots you have on your motherboard, there are currently three type
a). ISA Slots (these are either 8 bit and 16bit, to tell the difference the 16bit are the long one) they are normally black
b). PCI Slots these are the standard type at the moment, they are normally brown or white.
c). AGP Slots are the new Slot where you would put your Graphics Card.
How to install the NIC.
1. Open you computer Case.
2. Find an empty slot that the edge of the NIC will fit.
3. Take out the blanking plate (that the bit you see at the back of the computer that will stop you putting the NIC in).
4. Move the NIC into position of the slot and push it down firmly.
5. Screw the NIC into case to stop it coming out.
6. Close the Computer case
Installing the Drivers.
Old type NIC's
Older type's of NIC's normally require that you access the dos prompt via a Start-up/Boot disk, once at the prompt replace the disk with you NIC driver disk, there will normally be a setup program on the disk that would be laid out in the instructions on the driver disk, you may find this in a file called README. or you may be able to type README and press enter to access the documentation.
The New type NIC's
The New type NIC's are PNP (Plug and play) this means you can put them into the computer and not go thought the previous method for the old NIC's, all you do is install the NIC and turn you computer on.IRQ's and Input/Output Port
On the older NIC's its best to set the IRQ (Interrupt Request Level) Manually, choose the value 5 and a Input/Output port of 300, save the configuration and restart you computer.When you operating system (Windows all versions) starts.
Once your operating system has loaded, it will find the new NIC that has been installed and prompt you for the driver disk so that it can install the appropriate driver for the version of windows you are using. insert the disk and let the operating configure itself.
Configuring your protocols
Once the card is installed you need to access your network neighbourhood (Win9x) or My Network places (windows 2000/XP) once in the configure options it you have to add the IP protocol do so and ad an IP address something in the range of 192.168.X.X these are private IP Address ranges and also known as Class C networks which means you should use the mask 255.255.255.0, so give each machine an individual IP address for instance computer:1= 192.168.5.1.1 and computer 2= 192.168.5.1.2
Connecting you computers togetherThere are two methods of making you network, the first is Server to Client this means you must have one server and one or more pc's. If you just have 1 Server and 1 PC then you can use what is known as a UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) or TP (Twisted Pair) CAT5e crossover cable to connect and communicate between the two, if you have more than one pc then you will needs to use a HUB/Switch to connect you network, or if you are really sophisticated you can buy to wi-fi, wireless networking card forego the cable method. The Second method is called Peer to Peer, this means you can have two or more pc's joined via a crossover cable or hub/switch but only use shares on the computer to communicate and transfer files.The method you choose needs to be given some thought at buying time. And that's it, as all things nothing is always straight forward so you may have problems with some network cards always read the manual or seek the manufactures help if you get stuck.