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I've searched but not found anything that addresses my specific problem, apologies if I didn't search hard enough!
I have 2 PCs, and 1 netgear wireless router. I have a usb wireless card in one PC (lets call it PC1!) and this is connected via crossover cable from the motherboard LAN ports on PC1 and the second PC (lets call it PC2!).
PC1 - internet connection via wireless, no probs at all. File and Print access to PC2, no problem.
PC2 - file and print via PC1, no problem but I just cannot get it to connect to the internet.
DHCP is not working from PC2 - it says it cannot get a response. As far as I can tell the router is acting as the DHCP server. I've tried manually setting the IPs but that just generates conlicts (the router takes 192.168.0.1 for itself). I've dones as much google searching as I can but everything just points me back to the ICS 'wizard' that comes with XP which just keeps failing.
Any advice re ipconfig or anything else that might help here? I don't really understand how the default gateway and netmask work and I've no idea how to use NAT - but I'm willing to learn if it can be put into plain english or some examples provided.
Happy to provide more info if required.
I know I could solve this by buying a new wireless adapater for PC2 - but I don't want to have to then get a new firewall and AVS for PC2, and can't beleive that its impossible to get the set up I have to work! Isn't it? I'd rather get it to work and learn something that just bottle it and take the easy route!
Gah. That was all a bit confused, sorry. A summary:
PC1 connects to PC2 via crossover cable.
PC1 connect via wireless usb card to the router.
The router acts as a DHCP server, but PC2 doesn't seem to be able to get an IP address from it.
I can't share the wireless connection successfully using the ICS wizard. Sometimes I get an IP conflict, other times it just says that there's an error and its not possible to share.If I can solve this using static IPs please advise what settings I need to give each machine. If you think its something else that's the problem here, advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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By default Windows ICS uses 192.168.0.1 on the Host and 192.168.0.2 on the Guest.
Therefore if the the Wireless router is handing out IP's in the 192.168.0.xx range, then change the range to say 10.0.0.xx
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Why not plug PC2 into one of the LAN ports on the router. Thats they way it is supposed to be done and it should work. The router maual will give you details.
The way you have it set up you would need to install Internet Connection Sharing on PC1 and PC1 would would have to be on for PC2 to connect to the Internet. Silly when you have a router.
PC1 would then provide the DHCP address for PC2 via Internet Connection Sharing. PC2 cannot possibly get a DHCP address from the router via PC1.
Stuart
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Stuart - basically I have not done this because I'd have to run a network cable all the way from the other side of the house! That's why I'm using wireless on PC1 - I'd much rather not use wireless at all because of the appalling security, but I don't have the physical DIY know-how to run cables through walls and so on - can't have them loose I've got a 1 year old child running about the place!
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PC1 - internet connection via wireless, no probs at all. File and Print access to PC2, no problem
No offense intended but you wrote I'd much rather not use wireless at all because of the appalling security ..
If you understood it having file & print sharing enabled makes your entire network as vulnerable as wireless.
i_Xp/VistaUser
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well, changing the IP ranges just stopped me being able to access at all. So I changed them back!
The issue seems to now be that for some reason the ethernet card in PC1 won't pick up the DHCP from the router. If I try to enforce fixed IP on this card (and only this card), it blocks the whole PC from accessing the router, even though it is not this card that talks to the router, its the wireless usb card!
Bizarro world.
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>> The issue seems to now be that for some reason the ethernet card in PC1 won't pick up the DHCP from the router. <<
I take it you meant PC2 because in your original post PC1 connects by Wireless.
The computer that is plugged into the computer with the wireless connection must get its DHCP address from that computer, It cannot get it from the router. The computer that is connected to the router must have Internet Connection Sharing installed and configured and it is that that supplies the DHCP address to the other computer.
And as mentioned by Webs Wonder, the Router must be on a different sub net than the one Internet Connection Sharing is using.
Stuart
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No, unfortunately I do mean PC1 - it has a wireless card (which is how it connects to the router) and a standard network card (which is how it connects to PC2 via xover cable).
It is the settings on that ethernet card in PC1 that seem to be causing problems. I cannot enable ICS because of some kind of IP conflict - even after changing the IP address of the router to 192.168.0.2 it still thinks 192.168.0.1 is in use somewhere (though I can't ping it).
I misunderstood Webs Wonders' post. it says:
"Therefore if the the Wireless router is handing out IP's in the 192.168.0.xx range, then change the range to say 10.0.0.xx"
Which suggested (to me, anyway) that I change the range of IPs that the router is handing out, not the subnet that the router is on. Please can someone clarify please?
The router is currently IP address 192.168.0.2, handing out a range of 192.168.0.1 to 254, with a subnet 255.255.255.0.
The wireless card picks up via DHCP absolutely fine. The physical network card in the same PC (with the xover cable connected to the physical network card in PC2) does not pick up via DHCP and if I manually fix it to an IP address within the DHCP range, and tell it to use gateway 192.168.0.1 (i.e. PC1) OR 192.168.0.2 (i.e. PC2) then for some reason it shuts down my internet connection completely and nothing can access (at that point I can't even log onto the router directly via browser window unless I tell the card to go back to picking up automatically and release the IP, whereupon it once again fails to pick up an IP and is assigned the default 'no connection' one, but at least I can get t'internet back and access the router again).
The weird thing is, that if I leave this physical card in PC1 on 'auto', I have connectivity problems with PC2 - I can still access files no problem but there's an exclamation mark over the connection (in this setting remember PC1 can still access the net happily). If I manually assign an IP with the range and using the subnet mask in use on the wireless card in PC1 to the physical card in PC1, these connection issues disappear and I get full 10/100 speeds (but internet suddenly becomes disallowed on PC1).
And in neither case can I set up ICS. I just get a generic error. In typical XP fashion its not a helpful error message and contains no detail which is why I haven't duplicated it here. the most it says is that the default IP address required for setting up ICS is in use somewhere on the network (yes, XP Pro, I know that, its the wireless card I'm trying to share you dingbat! gah!). If I manually change the IP of the wireless card in PC1 to give it a different IP (on the same subnet etc) then again I lose all internet connection. If I release the IP so that its empty and then try to enable ICS it works, but I can't get internet connectivity back again - although I can log on to the router via the browser.
I've also tried turning off DHCP on the router and manually setting the wireless card but once again this just stops me accessing the internet and router at all.
Phew. Its all getting complicated again. as you can see I've tried a lot of things. I'm sure I'm missing something very straightforward but none of the automated 'wizards' are working, and neither are any of the online guides I've seen.
I could really use some step by step clear instructions on how to manually configure the router, wireless card, and ethernet cards in both PC1 and PC2.
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Sorry. I've made a gaff. You are right, there is no actual ethernet network 'card' in either PC. There is an RJ45 LAN connection built into each motherboard, and it is this that I'm talking about when I mention the physical ethernet cards in PC1 and 2.
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and that is fine. Your misunderstanding is that wireless/router/ics are in the 192.168.0.x range.
Router needs to be changed to 192.168.1.1 and its dhcp set to provide ips in the 192.168.1.x range.
ICS will be in the 192.168.0.1 and pc connect will be 192.168.0.2.
Do you understand the difference and why?
By putting ICS at 192.168.0.2 and your lan at 192.168.0.x do you understand why this would result in a ip conflict with ICS?
Are you ready for where Microsoft wants you to go today?
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I do now see the rather obvious difference in what you're saying about the two ip ranges - I'd missed the change in the third ip component. My fault entirely, I was being dense.
But I don't actually see why there would be a conflict between one ip address being used from the list of ip addresses in the range - I thought that was the point of having a range of IPs, so that any of them could be used for devices on the subnet? I evidently have a fundamental flaw in my understanding, which doesn't surprise me as I've had to learn everything from scratch doing personal research over the last few days, from various bits of fragmented advice from various web pages and help documents so if I've not picked up something obvious to you experienced types I do apologise!
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No apology needed. That is what we are here for. The ip conflict was a message from ICS saying it wants to use 192.168.0.1 but the other nic had that ip address listed as a gateway. Hence the ip conflict message.
If you set things as I stated in post 11 you should be good to go.
Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search
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ok, that has worked in terms of sorting out IP conflicts - both PCs are working without exclamation marks anywhere, ICS ran ok, networks have been set up, I can access the router, the connection is showing as shared in both PC1 and PC2's network places...
but. (heh heh)
Although in theory its all connected now, I can't actually get to the internet from PC2. I can get to the router no problem, but even with both software firewalls switched off I can't get to the internet from PC2.
There's probably one simple thing I've forgotten to do, but I am, as ever, open to suggestion.
Not to mention indebted for the help so far.
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We, [WebsWonder, StuartS, XpUser,] are always happy to help which is why we come here.
OK it sounds like we are almost there.
Lets figure out where the break is. Here's the plan. Lets start with pinging the routers ip address. That would be the ICS pcs gateway address. Then ping something like www.yahoo.com or www.google.com.
Post the ipconfig info from pc2 also. Thanks.
BTW you have an aptitude for this stuff considerating you looked up a lot of this stuff yourself and have been able to communicate in a technical fashion that has made this troubleshooting a lot easier..thanks for that!
Are you ready for where Microsoft wants you to go today?
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SUCCESS!!! w00t, go me, etc etc!
The last hurdle was the firewall on PC1. I just turned it off on the off chance which cured the problem. So turned it back on and worked my way through the help files until I got the connection shared and the ip of PC2 working. I did do a dump of an ipconfig /all for both pcs, and even a ping dump of various things, but I don't need them now. Thanks everyone - I now have at least a rudimentary understanding of IP addressing!
And a renewed disrespect for all things microsoft wizard based...
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oh - and I'm off to take screen dumps of every setting I can find that had to be changed. This is NOT going to catch me out again.
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