ICS Problems

I am having the same problems on my home network and on another one which I
set up for a mate.
The two systems are exactly the same.
i.e. Two computers, both running XP - at home XP Pro - at my mate's XP Home.
Computers are connected by ethernet cards and crossover cables.
I set up the internet connections on the Host computers. They work OK in
both cases. Mine is BT Openworld with the Alcatel Frog. My mates is ntlworld
with a cable modem. So far so good. Now we come to share the connection. At
first I tried using the Network Setup Wizard. It worked at first, but soon
stopped. I then found I could make the sharing more reliable by giving the
connections fixed IP addresses, so I have made the Host 192.168.0.1 in both
cases and the clients 192.168.0.2 with the Default Gateway set to
192.168.0.1.
Problem is that after working perfectly well for a while - one day, maybe
two or three, then the clients suddenly lose touch with the hosts. Sometimes
restarting both machines cures the problem, sometimes not. Sometimes
selecting "Repair" from the menu on the Network Connections icons cures the
problem, sometimes not. Sometimes I have to uninstall and reinstall the
drivers for the ethernet cards, and that has sometimes made the connection
work again.
My questions are: a) why does the system suddenly stop working? b) Why did
Microsoft put a REPAIR connection item on the menu? What did they expect to
happen that needed repairing? Is it this that is messing up my connections-
and if so why doesn't the repair option make it work again?
I am thinking of installing a proxy server on my Host machines because the
networking seems to work reasonably reliably as far as file and printer
sharing is concerned - although sometimes even that collapses for a while.
Has anyone else had this problem? Any and all suggestions gratefully
considered.

Will Light

PS - yesterday it happened again - both on my network and my friend's.




Will Light

Will Light <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
<snip>
> I am thinking of installing a proxy server on my Host machines because the
> networking seems to work reasonably reliably as far as file and printer
> sharing is concerned - although sometimes even that collapses for a while.

Throw away the Windows ICS and firewall and use WinRoute instead - much
nicer.
You can get a free 3 user license for WinRoute Lite here:
https://secure.kerio.com/promouk.html?id=12
But hurry - it's a promo and may disappear soon.

Thanks Rob. I have downloaded WinRoute and installed it. It seems to be
working because its DHCP server has allocated a new IP address to my Client
machine. That is fine, but the client machine still fails to pick up the
shared Internet Connection. Neither Internet Explorer nor Outlook seems
capable of finding the connection. I have the Network Settings in IE
Options/Connection set to Automatically Detect Settings - but it doesn't
work. I can ping both machines from the other, so there's nothing wrong with
TCP/IP or with the addresses etc. Any ideas on how to get the connection
working?

Will Light

"Rob Morley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) .com...
> Will Light <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> <snip>
> > I am thinking of installing a proxy server on my Host machines because
the
> > networking seems to work reasonably reliably as far as file and printer
> > sharing is concerned - although sometimes even that collapses for a
while.
>
> Throw away the Windows ICS and firewall and use WinRoute instead - much
> nicer.
> You can get a free 3 user license for WinRoute Lite here:
> https://secure.kerio.com/promouk.html?id=12
> But hurry - it's a promo and may disappear soon.

Will Light <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Thanks Rob. I have downloaded WinRoute and installed it. It seems to be
> working because its DHCP server has allocated a new IP address to my Client
> machine. That is fine, but the client machine still fails to pick up the
> shared Internet Connection. Neither Internet Explorer nor Outlook seems
> capable of finding the connection. I have the Network Settings in IE
> Options/Connection set to Automatically Detect Settings - but it doesn't
> work. I can ping both machines from the other, so there's nothing wrong with
> TCP/IP or with the addresses etc. Any ideas on how to get the connection
> working?
>
I never use DHCP with WinRoute - it works fine with static addressing.
Set the server address to 192.168.0.1, and client to 192.168.0.2. Set
the default gateway on the client to 192.168.0.1 and everything should
work.

I have exactly the same problem. Spent all day yesterday trying to get the
damn thing to work. Tried static addressing too with no luck.



"Will Light" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bndnoj$fme$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks Rob. I have downloaded WinRoute and installed it. It seems to be
> working because its DHCP server has allocated a new IP address to my
Client
> machine. That is fine, but the client machine still fails to pick up the
> shared Internet Connection. Neither Internet Explorer nor Outlook seems
> capable of finding the connection. I have the Network Settings in IE
> Options/Connection set to Automatically Detect Settings - but it doesn't
> work. I can ping both machines from the other, so there's nothing wrong
with
> TCP/IP or with the addresses etc. Any ideas on how to get the connection
> working?
>
> Will Light
>
> "Rob Morley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) .com...
> > Will Light <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > <snip>
> > > I am thinking of installing a proxy server on my Host machines because
> the
> > > networking seems to work reasonably reliably as far as file and
printer
> > > sharing is concerned - although sometimes even that collapses for a
> while.
> >
> > Throw away the Windows ICS and firewall and use WinRoute instead - much
> > nicer.
> > You can get a free 3 user license for WinRoute Lite here:
> > https://secure.kerio.com/promouk.html?id=12
> > But hurry - it's a promo and may disappear soon.
>
>

Yes - that much DOES work - the problem is that the client machine, although
networked correctly, cannot seem to see the Internet. I have fiddled with
all possible combinations of options in Internet Explorer, but neither IE
nor Outlook on the client machine can pick up the Internet Connection. The
file-sharing and printer sharing etc. all work OK, it is just the Internet
that isn't being shared properly. On the Host machine, the Internet
connection appears with Connected, Shared, Firewalled under the icon, but
the other machine cannot access it. Any ideas???


Will Light


"Rob Morley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) .com...
> Will Light <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > Thanks Rob. I have downloaded WinRoute and installed it. It seems to be
> > working because its DHCP server has allocated a new IP address to my
Client
> > machine. That is fine, but the client machine still fails to pick up the
> > shared Internet Connection. Neither Internet Explorer nor Outlook seems
> > capable of finding the connection. I have the Network Settings in IE
> > Options/Connection set to Automatically Detect Settings - but it doesn't
> > work. I can ping both machines from the other, so there's nothing wrong
with
> > TCP/IP or with the addresses etc. Any ideas on how to get the connection
> > working?
> >
> I never use DHCP with WinRoute - it works fine with static addressing.
> Set the server address to 192.168.0.1, and client to 192.168.0.2. Set
> the default gateway on the client to 192.168.0.1 and everything should
> work.