Home Networking via a Hub - help please

Hello All,

I have NTL boradband via the Set Top box that connects to PC1 via an
Ethernet Card.

I now want to share the Internet access to two other PC's - For the sake of
example, called PC's 2 and 3. I have bought a Second ethernet card for PC1
that goes to a Hub, then two lines feed PC's two and three, both via
Ethernet cards again. All three PC's are running XP Pro.

I am having real trouble with Home Networking and ICS - this is the extent
of the problem.

When running the Home Networking Wizard on PC1 (the server) - it seems to
configure correctly. The NTL connection becomes shared and firewalled - it
gets an IP address of 192.168.0.1.

If I then run on PC's 2 & 3, it usually finds a private address (ie.
169.xxx.xxx.x) - If I manual configure either of these PC's with an IP of
192.168.0.(2-253) I can then see them on the Network - I can access shared
folders and can connect via PC anywhere - but they can't access the
Internet.

Sometimes the Wizard (or even a reboot) will assign IP's by DHCP but still
they cannot get Internet access.

I've tried everything I can think of...

Swapping all wires etc.
Uninstalling and Re-installing all Ethernet cards
Setting up all PC's manually including DNS addresses (see question below)
Re-Booting the HUB?
Re-Formatted and Clean install if XP on all machines

Couple of questions:-

When I first tried setting this up - It did start working correctly but when
I booted up XP, I was presented with a log on screen that I had to type my
name into - now I am back to having a Icon to click on next to my name
(there are three users set up on my PC and I have full admin rights) to log
on - does this mean anything?

-If manually configuring the TCP/IP connection, do I need the DNS settings
on PC's 2 and 3 or on the server PC (or on all three) (When I did configure
it manually, I set the IP on PC1 as the Default Gateway on PC's 2 & 3
(192.168.0.1))

-Is there an alternative software solution than using the settings on XP
pro - is there any third party software I can try?

-When usingt the wizard to set up home networking on PC1 - should it start
the IP is manually configured - even if I set it back to auto-detect and run
the wizrd again, it sets it as manual. Is this correct?

For your further information, I have turned off the XP firewall and removed
ZAPro from PC1.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Rich

In article <wkOob.683$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> I am having real trouble with Home Networking and ICS - this is the extent
> of the problem.
>

I gave up and used a proxy program. I could get email working but not
the web with ICS (although I'm using 2000 not XP).

Try 602 Pro LAN Suite but read the instructions carefully as it is not
simple and make sure you get the latest version (2003.0.03.0609 works).

The easiest solution (and probably most useful and reliable) would be to
give up and spend £50 on a broadband router (I know the Netgear one
works but so do most others I suspect). Just plug your ADSL box into
that and the PCs all into the router and it should work almost
automatically (as long as Ip addressing is dynamic on all PCs it will
just happen).

Martin P Matthews wrote:

> In article <wkOob.683$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>
>>I am having real trouble with Home Networking and ICS - this is the extent
>>of the problem.
>>
>
>
> I gave up and used a proxy program. I could get email working but not
> the web with ICS (although I'm using 2000 not XP).
>
> Try 602 Pro LAN Suite but read the instructions carefully as it is not
> simple and make sure you get the latest version (2003.0.03.0609 works).
>
> The easiest solution (and probably most useful and reliable) would be to
> give up and spend £50 on a broadband router (I know the Netgear one
> works but so do most others I suspect). Just plug your ADSL box into
> that and the PCs all into the router and it should work almost
> automatically (as long as Ip addressing is dynamic on all PCs it will
> just happen).

I also have a dislike of most proxy software it is either too complex to
set up or dosen't work right andat least one of the free ones that work
I suspect strongly is a spam magnet. However I know one that does work
and is fairly simple to get going "FreeProxy".


In the longterm a router is a much better idea,in the situtation the OP
described it could be an old 486 PC running IP cop or any of the other
Linux based routers would be ideal as router/wirewall.