ICS Question About DSL Sharing

A quick question about Sharing a DSL question.

Let's say I have computer A, and computer B. I can connect to my connection (it's a login/password connection) with computer A. After enabling ICS, computer B shares the internet. Works fine. Now, I disconnect from computer A, and use computer B to connect. Computer B connects fine but does not share with computer A. When trying to enable ICS, i get error # 799 about the IP address.

I disconnect from computer B, then reconnect with computer A. I then reconfigure the IP address of computer B from the LAN properties to 192.168.0.2 (instead of 192.168.0.1). Computer A is connected to the net just fine, but obviously with IP changed, computer B does not get the shared connection.

After reading into this I came accross this:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;EN-US;Q238135

A summary (from what I got out of the article) is that I need 2 NIC's. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I gather that this is the only way to accomplish what I want to do. My DSL does also have a USB port, so I suppose I could use that to accomplish this, but before I resort to that I would like to make sure I understand everything correctly.

Summary of what I want just in case my story above doesn't clarify:
I have 2 computers. I want them to be able to connect independently to the internet through a xDSL connection, but at the same time, I want that connection to be shared to the other computer.

P.S. What happens if I throw in Computer C? Would that mean I would have to have 3 NIC's?

To all you networking guru's, someone please help me out on this. Please tell me there's a simple fix.

 

 

 

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Actually computer 'A' or possibly computer 'B' is the host and all other computers are clients, only one computer will connect to the internet and to share the connection you will either have to have a wired ethernet connection or a wireless connection between 'A' and 'B' and and other connections. If you use the USB to connect to the internetthen you would just need two nics one for the host computer and one for the client , but if you use the ethernet connection for the host you will have to have a nic just for that and another to pass the network connection to the client, so if you had three computers in the network the first two the host and its first client would have two nics and the last computer would have just one. The reason for this is because you are daisychaining the connection.

DSL <---------------------->NIC1 PC1
NIC2 PC1 <--------------->NIC1 PC2
NIC2 PC2 <--------------->NIC1 PC3

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A quick suggestion - DO AWAY with ICS.

If your connection medium is a DSL Modem-Router, then it should be able to dial on it's own. Simply spend another $50/60 and get yourself a small 8port unmanaged switch or a similar hub. Connect the swtich the DSL router directly to the switch and let it dial out, and connect both your PC's to the switch too. That way you can totally do away with all these hassles.

I've got the exact same configuration here - except that 7 computers (including a server) are connected to the switch and the switch I have is one expensive piece of hardware well over $1000 - a 3COM Managed 28 port FDDI Switch. The DSL Modem-Router is an external one with both Ethernet and USB support. It's plugged into the switch through ethernet. Only first time after installing the network, I'd to login to the modem-router and set the dialling login/pass into it - and alot it a unique IP - which serves as my gateway address. Then on it just dials out. All computers on my network use this modem-router's IP as the default gateway address and all of them can access the net. Works like a CHARM

 

 

 

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I take it this is an internal PCI DSL modem?

So computer A acts as the Gateway, has the modem connected and is linked to Computer B via a crossover cable.

I'm confused as to what you tried doing with Computer B, it sounds like you were trying to set up ICS on this too, which makes me believe this modem is actually external and possibly USB?

So in this scenario, there's really is no Host but more the effect that whichever computer is on at the time will receive the modem and then if the other computer comes on, it too would like access.

I think what you're missing out of this picture is DHCP, because obviously the gateway will change to whichever computer is hosting the modem, there's tools that can toggle switching, etc, you'll have to search for those, but DHCP may save you the effort.

To be honest, I don't like USB or Internal modems and ICS. You end up having more problems than what it's worth, which is why I always suggest to my clients that paying a few dollars extra will save me charging for fixing their problems.

If you want to add another computer, I do suggest getting a hub, maybe a 5 port hub for around $30 would do you, I would also suggest maybe getting an ethernet router for your DSL, it offers slightly better protection and would eliminate using resources of your computer to act as hosts but it's not essential, as long as you learn how to solve the problems you get.


Cheers,


MC

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I guess that minnieadkins has each computer connected directly to the router, each one through it's own single NIC.
Then, you don't need ICS. If each computer can go to Internet, both computers can go simultaneously to internet, without any trick.
If your provider allows two simultaneous connections, you don't need ICS. And if your provider does not allow two simultaneous connections, ICS wil not provide it.
So, simply configure each computer to go to the net, and then, if your hardware allows it, both will be able to share the internet connection.
And if your hardware does not allow it, then, as miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG says, upgrade your hardware adding a cheap Ethernet switch or an Ethernet hub.
Regards
yordan

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Thaks for your advice, and if I understood it, I would probably take it lol. Basically I have 2 computers (possibly 3 in the future). Each computer has 1 ethernet card. The dsl modem is external. I then connect the modem to the hub I have. I have a NetGear model EN104tp.

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/EN104TP.php <- hub

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I know what I want. I want to be able to have any of the 2 (or possibly 3) computers to be able to connect to the internet any time, or have a shared connection from any other the other computers that happens to be connected. So I don't want them to be dependent on 1 computer to get the connection.

I have no idea on how to configure stuff, but I can catch on fairly quick if you give me a rundown of what to do. I'd appreciate it, and sorry I didn't specify my layout in the previous post.

here's a layout of

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I did exactly that in my home. And I had nothing special to do. I connected each computer to Internet separately, and then all three of them were able to go simultaneously to internet, or to communicate with each other.

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Sorry, but I'm very confused. I first plugged computer A into the router, and it works fine. After going ( in IE ) tools->internet options->connections->settings->properties->advanced. Then I checked the allow others to use network. Only then could computer B have acces to the net.

This is where I'm confused. If I did not enable ICS, computer B did not acknowledge the connection. Is there something special I have to do to do this. You talked about simultaneous connections. If I try to connect through computer B while computer A is on, while ICS is disabled I get a busy signal or something like that.

This is what I get from the procedure by using ICS. Computer can connect independently. Computer A can connect and computer B acknowledges the connection. Computer B can connect, but computer A does not acknowledge the connection.

I'm not too good @ networking, and I'm sorry if I sound noobish, but I'm just plain lost. It seems that I'm going the logical way of doing this. As I said before, computer B did not acknowledge a connection while computer A was connected WHILE ICS WAS DISABLED. If I have to do something in the configuration, I more than likely haven't done it. Is there's something on the router I'm suppose to press?

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OK,

I'm just going to outline how I'll set this up.

Things you need, two computers, each with their own NIC.

5 or more port Switch/Hub.

An external Ethernet Router.

The router connects to the Hubs Uplink using normal UTP cable (not crossover unless the switch/hub is auto-negoitiable which means any cable can work), computer A and Computer B also connect to the Hub using normal UTP cables.

Computer A/B must have a similar IP range like the Router, e.g. if the Router's IP is 192.168.0.1 then make Computer A 192.168.0.2 netmask/subnet: 255.255.255.0 then connect to the Router's Web Interface and configure it so that DHCP is enabled, you may also need to add your ISP's DNS to it, if it does ask for DNS do add it.

Now change your NICs on both computers to automatically get assigned an IP. The only reason you'd want to configure it manually (make it static) is that you need it to remain the same, if that's the case then.

Computer A:
IP - 168.192.0.2
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 168.192.0.1 (router's IP)
Primary/Secondary DNS: ISP DNS IP

Computer B: is similar setup but uses IP - 168.192.0.3

There's no need to configure ICS, this is only needed if you are sharing an internet connection off another computer, usually an internal modem or USB modem or a computer that primarily has the internet connection, but not one that is shared over a network like an ethernet router.

You'd then configure your Internet Explorer LAN settings and make sure that automatically detect settings is enabled.


Cheers,


MC

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Thx, the missing piece is obviously the router. I was thinking that a hub/router was the same thing, but what I was really getting at is I thought mine was a combination of the two I guess.

The only other question would be, why the need for the 5 port hub? I have a 4 port hub, will this not work? Wouldn't a 4 port hub be enough for 3 computers?

The setup is is: ?
DSL->HUB->Router->COMPUTER A, COMPUTER B

Unless I misunderstood, why wouldn't a 4 port hub work?

As I mentioned, I'm basically Network illiterate. Sorry for all the confusion. I guess I just don't understand the difference in a HUB vs Router.

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