Network peeps...? i need some help :(

[seedling]

setup:

XP laptop (using wireless EVDO card to connect to internet) as well as connected to the router via internal wireless
wireless router
2 other windows machines and ps3 connected to wireless router

i just need the other machines to connect to the internet thru the router.

first, i know there's a billion hits on google with this, mostly all with conflicting methods and opinions.  but let me tell you my bit.  at one time i had a normal setup. dsl modem plugged into wireless router, and all other machines could use the internet... simple, done!  then that hard-wired service went down, so i turned on ICS (internet connection sharing) on my XP laptop with the EVDO card and once again it just worked! simple! great!  the dsl service got flakey so i got rid of it and just used my shared laptop net access. time went on, kids moved out, etc. didn't use router for anything, didn't need to share a connection.  fast-forward to today, and now i need to do the same thing.  so i fired up the router, turned on ICS. all machines can see each other on the network... but no internet access! this has been bugging me for some time.  i've turned off firewalls, etc to see if that was the problem, but no-go

i'm sure this is a simple setup as it 'just worked' before, but can't seem to make it work again.  please help!


thanks

[Stoic Joker]

ICS always struck me as being rather fragile & unsecure. Have you considered trying one of the portable access point 3G/EVDO routers? It would be a cleaner & simpler solution.

[seedling]

security, where i am, isn't an issue. and yeah, i've looked at the evdo router solution recently.  it's kinda of expensive tho, plus it shouldn't be necessary as it was working before.  was hoping someone could shed some light one why it isn't working.  i've read multiple tutorials online, and just about all of them involve a hard wire into the router from the ICS machine and i never had to do this back in the day.

[seedling]

i'll try to keep this as simple as possible.  but before i do, let me tell you where i was getting hung up.  i kept thinking about the router's involvement and how in the world can addressing take place twice on a wireless adapter, etc.  the lesson here is, don't think about it!  the router settings are insignificant.

anyway, here's the setup:

machine001 (has internet connection)
machine00x (just another machine connected to the router)
router

here's what you do:

machine001:
 . open up the connection properties you wish to share (the network connection that connects directly to the internet)
 . click the advanced tab and check 'Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection'
 . under 'Home networking connection', select 'Wireless Network Connection'
 . click 'OK' to save the changes

this now sets your wireless adapter address to 192.168.0.1.  you can confirm this by opening up the adapter's properties and checking out its TCP/IP settings. this is now your gateway to the internet for all other machines connected to the router.

connect to the internet and do ipconfig /all and make note of the DNS Servers (you'll need to input these on any subsequent machines)

connect to the wireless router. (yes, that's it)

we're done with machine001

machine00x:
 . open up the properties of your wireless adapter.
 . go into the TCP/IP settings of the wireless adapter.
 . tick the 'Use the following IP address' option and assign that machine another ip on the same subnet as the gateway, but do not use the same one as the gateway.  for example, use 192.168.0.2 (notice the last number changed), let your subnet mask be 255.255.255.0 (default), then enter 192.168.0.1 as the gateway. and finally, under the 'Use the following DNS server addresses', enter the DNS addresses you got from the previous ipconfig results from machine001.
 . connect to the router and you should now have access to the net through machine001!!

that's it, no other router configuration. doesn't matter if DHCP is turned on in the router or not.

if you're experiencing problems still then it's probably a firewall issue, so make sure you allow the necessary traffic to come in and out as requested by the other machines.

that's really all there is to it, i now have 3 machines and a ps3 hooked up thru the router this way. just remember to assign all the machines unique ip addresses.

hopefully this will help someone else out there.

no need for a $200 EVDO router either