I have just started with Tiscali Broadband (on a Windows 98 PC). I thought it would be nice to share it with other computers, but everytime I try to install Internet connection sharing, my Windows 98 machine reboots! It's usually at the point where it makes up a "client disc". Sometimes it gets past this bit, sometimes it reboots before it. Once I got all the way through setup and restarted the PC myself (as intended), but then in Device Mangler the Internet Connection Sharing (through my 3COM Etherlink III card) had a red exclamation mark. When I went to Properties, the PC rebooted! So what is doing this? I have no viruses as I've just done a full update of my AVG. Thanks.

Tommy.

Sorry I meant a yellow exclamation mark...

Tommy.

Click on the item in device manager and windows will tell you what it thinks the problem is.

Sounds like the drivers aren't getting installed or there may be a conflict with another device. If it's a PCI card sometimes moving the card to a different slot helps. But many of those etherlink III's were ISA.

Tommy, whilst you can set up ICS, I would really recommend that you look into installing a router instead.

ICS in fact turns your computer into a router. Windows is far less efficient that the dedicated hardware solution. A discrete device will not bog your computer down and will not rely on it being available for others to access the network/internet.

It's also easier to set up a router than ICS. Also once it's done, you shouldn't need to look at it again, except maybe to look at the logs to see what others are up to. I use mine as a means of controlling what my kids access on the net. They never know when I might look at the log!

A router also adds a hardware firewall. Most also add the ability to block undesirable sites to all the computers at once. Such as those pesky adservers that try to make surfing a chore!

Hi Rimfire,
thanks for your advice... I might try that sometime in the near future, but since I posted the above, I installed Ccproxy as an experiment and it seems to work great! So I'm getting Internet access on two other PCs now. However, certain applications cannot connect through Ccproxy, like AVG for example. Even though I have my Proxy set up for all ports including FTP, AVG cannot update from a remote PC through the proxy.

Hadn't heard of that software before. The asking price seems to be similar to what a router would cost.

The usual reason that apps can't access the internet is firewalls. If you are running any, you'll need to add AVG to the allowed programs.

BTW, my router is a wireless one. This allows me to remain in bed on these cold winter mornings and use a laptop!