Two laptop webcams, one LAN cable, WebcamXP Pro

HI, this is my first time dealin with laptop webcams so i'm at a complete loss here.

i'm doing presentation ala Larry King Live where on the projector screen there will be a "live guest" talking tru "satellite".

We have one laptop in the presentation room connected to the projector and i want to connect it to a another laptop in another room using only a LAN cable and then use the webcams to see each other.

So how do i setup two webcams to see each other on a local network? There's no wifi, no nothing. just a LAN cable to connect them. they're both on Vista btw.

I'm thinking i need to setup a local network so that the laptop can first see each other. And then use a webcam software where you can connect tru the IP address.

How do you setup the local network? the setting of the local gateway and stuff like that. And i'm tryin to use this prog called WebcamXP Pro to connect the two laptops? has anyone used it? how do you work the program?

tia.