Question : Problem: How do I directly connect two computers with a modem and phone cable in the same room?

My friend and I are trying to play Age of Empires, but cant go through the internet due to the school firewall, so I bought a phone cable to go from his modem in his laptop to mine, but it still didn't work. What needs to be done so we can play against eachother?

It would be ideal to use the internet, though.

Answer : Problem: How do I directly connect two computers with a modem and phone cable in the same room?

You have two options and neither involve using the modem.

If you have a switch or Broadband router that both computers CAT5 cables can plug into then you can use that and play with the LAN mode.

If you don't have a switch/router then your next bet is a crossover cable.. if you have stuff there you can make one or you will need to purchase one..  

http://www.littlewhitedog.com/content-8.html

If you use the crossover cable then you need to set your TCP/IP settings manually.. make one computer 192.168.50.10 (255.255.255.0) and the other 192.168.50.20 (255.255.255.0) and then your computers can talk to each other.

Don't know where you live but you can call a local computer repair place and they could probably make/sell you a cable for 10-15 bucks..