Internet connection sharing Win XP

My kids got good report cards so I have to live up to my end of the bargain and "pipe" the internet to their rooms.

We already have a "home" network with 3 computers running WinXP, the family computer which serves as the gateway is double NICed, one to the home net, one to the DSL net.

We've never had problem sharing files and the printer on the home net. I used all of the MS help files to set up the ICS. The kids computers even show the internet connected and enabled.

Whenever you try to launch a page, you get a timeout DNS error style message. What did I screw up? My ISP doesn't list a DNS address, they say to use Automatic.

lol - For some very freaky reason I have never ever had any joy getting ICS to work on my home comps. A friend of mine did have it working on his 3 comps at home. I helped him set it up so I know I'm not doing anything wrong - then he goes and buys a new computer and ICS stops working for no reason I can figure - file sharing etc is fine but getting on the net... no. There's a couple of things I would suggest... either

1) get a home router - not generally too expensive works like a dream, you get extra security and for a little bit extra outlay you get something that works in no time. You can even set up URL blocking to stop your kids from going to certain places too... which you might view as a bonus - and you'll also be able to get rid of the second nic and free up another PCI slot on your machine - groovy!
2) get some other internet sharing program - Analog X proxy is free and works reasonably well - it has it's limitations but its free... there are others about some cost some don't but a search on google should help you here.

I honestly wouldn't waste my time trying to get ICS to work - it either works straight off or it doesn't - if it doesn't use other solutions - really you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration.

Z

Hey Hey,

You may want to check out these sites.. they may or may not be of use, but they've got some data.
http://www.allensmith.net/Windows/ICS/xpICSmtu.htm
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article04-105

I used to have a cable connection sharing from one computer to another no problem, I also setup a friends house to have a gateway using ICS and the rest into a switch connected to that gateway without problem. However when I switched to DSL, I couldn't get it to go. We even called tech support finally and they said that ICS doesn't work properly with DSL because of the PPPoE (may just not have wanted us to use more than one computer). Luckily though our DSL provider allows for up to 8 IP addresses, so we were able to just pick up a switch and use that. I wish you luck because I have found it's not an easy thing to do, however the workaround in the first link I posted may work for ya.

peace,
HT

I followed the links and I'll give it a running shot tomorrow.

My ISP wants to charge extra per CPU. If I don't tie up any extra IP addresses and I don't get any more bandwidth I don't understand the extra fees. I'm trying to hide behind my gateway, I guess a router would work as well. It kind of reminds me when ATT used to own the whole phone company and charged for extra extensions.

Sounds like, since you get a dns address automatically, the client
machines have no way of knowing it. I think you can set up a name server
on your ics server machine to provide lookups for them. It's probably installed, maybe just needs to be activated.
:cool:

I gave up on Windows ICS. I set and reset the MTU key about a dozen times. I goolgles and found AnalogX Proxy. A free proxy server. AnalogX Website

The setup was wicked easy.

I didn't need the parental controls, I'm taking a leap of faith and letting them flex their wings. I'll check the history files. If nothing else I can see what they are curious about and steer them to making the better choices.


/edit change website and spelling of analogx

Just wait til they start downloading music and hogging
all your bandwidth.
:cool:

told you Analog X works reasonably well - glad to see you got yourself up and running again :)

Z

If you get bored one day and want to see if you can't figure out what the problem was, call your ISP up and tell them to give you their DNS servers. Then input the DNS servers manually into each computer except the one thats the gateway.

I think it had to do with the default MTU packet size of 1500. The links that HTReg sent were all about it. Zonewalkers hint to the proxy software was helpful. I wish I went for the proxy software instead of wasting a day trying to get Microcrap running.

Kids are happy, it's school vacation they've been on the 'net all day. keeps them off the street stealing hub caps. My son's probably trying to figure out how to buy that F18 that's on ebay.