Home Networking with Dialup Internet Access 1

[isaar]

I have three computers which I would like to have the ability to connect to the internet and each other at the same time. The main 'server' of the three is running Windows XP Pro. The other two are running XP Home, and Red Hat Linux.

My original plan was to have the XP Pro matchine dial up the ISP and with the Internet Sharing ability of XP have it connect to a D-Link (DI-604) Router to share the connect to the other two computers.

I have tried to do this, but have been unsucessful. I am now wondering if this will even work? Any help that you can provide would be a great help.

Thanks

 

[manarth]

My first guess is that the router has DHCP turned on... for ICS to work, it has to serve DHCP.

Solution: turn off DHCP on the router.

If no joy...
- check that your ICS machine connects to the internet
- do (win command prompt) "ipconfig /all" (& the linux equivalent) to check what IP settings you're getting on your extra 2 machines
- check if all 3 machines are able to ping the router
if you're not sure what the router's IP is, you can always do (win command prompt) "arp -a" from your XP home / XP server to list IPs against their relevant MACs.

Post back with the IP configurations if you need some further help... good luck

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? here's a good place to start: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[isaar]

Right now I am just trying to get this working with the two XP computers through the Router. I have disabled DHCP on the router, and ensure that it was enable on the ethernet card of the computer connecting to the internet.

Neither of the XP computers can ping the router. What do you need for IP configuration... just to output from the ipconfig /all?

Also, what setting does the router need other than turning of DHCP???

 

[manarth]

yes, please output for &quot;ipconfig /all&quot;

the router's settings don't really matter, because in this setup, you're only using the router as a switch, you're not using it's routing features.

if the PCs are getting IPs 169.x.x.x this means they're not getting an IP address from the DHCP server (i.e. ICS)

I'm assuming your setup is...

       ROUTER
  ===============
   |     |     |
  PC1   PC2   PC3
               |
              ISP

I'd pin the problem to either of 2 possibilities - bad cables (should normally all be Cat5 patch cable), or the IP configuration setup wrong.

The IP configuration you SHOULD see would be
- all PCs on the same subnet
(e.g. 192.168.0.x & subnet mask 255.255.255.0)
- the default gateway should be PC3's IP

you can also try pinging the other machines' IP addresses from each machine - this may highlight a particular link in the chain which isn't working. (win command prompt &quot;ping xx.xx.xx.xx&quot


<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? here's a good place to start: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[isaar]

IP information from XP Pro (acting as PC3 in your diagram)

Cannot load VDM IPX/SPX support
Microsoft(R) Windows DOS
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1990-2001.

C:\DOCUME~1\SCOTT>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : xpserver
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC #2
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-BA-61-1B-EF
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.125.87
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

PPP adapter AT&T Connection Service:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 12.84.206.102
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 12.84.206.102
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 204.127.129.2
                                            12.102.244.2

C:\DOCUME~1\SCOTT>

IP Info from XP Home (PC1 or PC2 in diagram)

C:\DOCUME~1\SCOTT>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ScottXPLabtop
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 9:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC #3
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-08-02-D1-0F-76
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 192.168.0.100
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.225.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, April 20, 2003 3:31:48 PM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, April 27, 2003 3:31:48 PM

The CAT5 cables should be fine, as they are showing as connected on the router. Also, the input cable only works with a cross-over cable. Nomal CAT5 does not register as connected.

 

[manarth]

Well, I can identify WHERE your problem is, but I'm not sure what's causing the problem.

Your PC3 - Win XP Pro Server...

has configuration:
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.125.87
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
The address 169.x.x.x indicates that this machine is not receiving an IP address properly from the DHCP server (which is itself - i.e. the ICS system).

The machine's IP address SHOULD be 192.168.0.1 with subnet mask 255.255.225.0 - the default gateway should be 12.84.206.102

At this stage, I have no idea why your ICS PC isn't configuring itself properly, but is configuring everything else OK.

Comments from the floor, please?

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? here's a good place to start: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[isaar]

Marnarth,

Since we are not getting any posts from the peanut gallery, do you have any ideas as to what to do?

I am wondering if the ICS is setup correctly to do the DHCP? What has to be done to have that setup? Is it on the Dial Up connection, or the ethernet connection to the router?

Any ideas or website you can give would be helpful.

 

[manarth]

My best guesses are you have an incompatible service on the XP pro / on the network:
&quot;WARNING #2: Don't enable ICS if any computer in your network is configured as a domain controller, DHCP server, or DNS server. Don't enable it if another computer is running ICS or Network Address Translation (NAT).&quot;
or ICS just isn't set up properly on XP pro.

ICS should be setup on just one PC - if it is active on the XP home machine, remove it.

This site gives info on setting ICS up:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/

This is the dialup config page:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/serverdialup.htm

I've not seen the problem before, so I can only suggest generic fixes...it may be worthwhile to uninstall ICS and set it all up again. Good luck!

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[Starlord]

Found this. Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 306126:
How to Enable Internet Connection Sharing on a Home or Small Office Network Connection in Windows XP