[hairyhermit]

bridging the connection is working for me. I have my pc connected to the internet right now via my phone and the connection is bridged with a LAN cable from my nic on the pc direct to my xbox. There is a link light. I'm able to browse the web on this pc. I am not using a crossover as both ends (pc and xbox) have gigabit ethernet nics which are auto switching.

added the xbox to trusted zone in Zonealarm. Everything is set to auto. Did not prompt me, but did NOT work until I rebooted PC after bridging connections.

Internet connection sharing I spent a long time trying to figure out, bridging was simpler.