Internet connection sharing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ewen Cluley
  • Start date Start date
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Ewen Cluley

Ok, just got a home network between 2 pc running windows
xp. Is there any way to make it so that i can share the
internet connection on both computers so that if one
connected to the internet and the other wants to go on it
will use the existing connection and vise versa.
Any help would be much appreciated
 
"Ewen Cluley" said:
Ok, just got a home network between 2 pc running windows
xp. Is there any way to make it so that i can share the
internet connection on both computers so that if one
connected to the internet and the other wants to go on it
will use the existing connection and vise versa.
Any help would be much appreciated
Click to expand...

You can set up one computer as an ICS (Internet Connection Sharing)
host and always use that one to connect to the Internet. It isn't
possible to use both computers as ICS hosts.

Details here:

Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
I would like to disagree with the statement below.
In my opinion, it is possible to use ICS on BOTH
computers. Here is a detailed description of how I would
go about it:

Let's call the two computers A and B.

1)On A, set up ICS as usual. This sets the local (or
private) network card (the one you use to connect to
computer B) to IP address 192.168.0.1. That's fine.
Switch this computer off, for now.

2)On B, set up ICS as usual. This sets B's private
network card to 192.168.0.1, too, which would cause a
problem. So go to Control Panel/Network Connections and
using the TCP/IP properties change the IP address of the
private network card (probably showing up as Local Area
Connection) to something like 192.168.0.2.
NOTE: Contrary to what ICS claims when you set it up, the
private network card does NOT have to have an IP address
of 192.168.0.1.

3) Whilst still working with B, using the TCP/IP
properties of the private network card, set it's default
gateway to be 192.168.0.1

4) Go back to A, switch it on, go to Control
Panel/Network Connections and in the TCP/IP properties
for the network card (which should have IP of
192.168.0.1) set the default gateway to 192.168.0.2

With this, everything will now work.

Here are a few explanations:

- Contrary to what you might think, having the two
computers specify each other as default gateway is NOT a
problem. Sure, if none of them are connected to the
Internet, packets might get bounced about a little bit,
but that's fine.
- Windows Dial-Up Networking has the wondeful feature
that when you successfully establish a Dial-Up
connection, the actual default gateway that gets used
will be the one on the Dial-Up connection, which
overrides any settings you specified in the TCP/IP
properties of your network card.
So when one of the two computers successfully connects to
the Internet, it will start using it's dial-up connection
as the default gateway rather than the other computer.

I hope the above plan will work out for you.
-----Original Message-----
Click to expand...
 
"anonymous" said:
I would like to disagree with the statement below.
In my opinion, it is possible to use ICS on BOTH
computers. Here is a detailed description of how I would
go about it:

Let's call the two computers A and B.

1)On A, set up ICS as usual. This sets the local (or
private) network card (the one you use to connect to
computer B) to IP address 192.168.0.1. That's fine.
Switch this computer off, for now.

2)On B, set up ICS as usual. This sets B's private
network card to 192.168.0.1, too, which would cause a
problem. So go to Control Panel/Network Connections and
using the TCP/IP properties change the IP address of the
private network card (probably showing up as Local Area
Connection) to something like 192.168.0.2.
NOTE: Contrary to what ICS claims when you set it up, the
private network card does NOT have to have an IP address
of 192.168.0.1.

3) Whilst still working with B, using the TCP/IP
properties of the private network card, set it's default
gateway to be 192.168.0.1

4) Go back to A, switch it on, go to Control
Panel/Network Connections and in the TCP/IP properties
for the network card (which should have IP of
192.168.0.1) set the default gateway to 192.168.0.2

With this, everything will now work.

Here are a few explanations:

- Contrary to what you might think, having the two
computers specify each other as default gateway is NOT a
problem. Sure, if none of them are connected to the
Internet, packets might get bounced about a little bit,
but that's fine.
- Windows Dial-Up Networking has the wondeful feature
that when you successfully establish a Dial-Up
connection, the actual default gateway that gets used
will be the one on the Dial-Up connection, which
overrides any settings you specified in the TCP/IP
properties of your network card.
So when one of the two computers successfully connects to
the Internet, it will start using it's dial-up connection
as the default gateway rather than the other computer.

I hope the above plan will work out for you.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting plan, "anonymous". Changing the ICS host's LAN
IP address is "un-supported". That means that Microsoft probably
won't give technical support if you have problems after doing it. It
doesn't mean that ICS will or won't work after you do it.

Have you tried it yourself to see if it works?
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
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