installing 2 nic cards

Im running widows XP. i have a router and a switch. I would like to take the router out becuase im getting tired of changeing ports to get programs to work. I hear you can have 2 nic cards in a computer. is there any special settings that you have to do to get this to work. My goal is to have on computer hook to my dsl and have my other computers on a lan and still be able to get on the internet.