Connection to two simultaneous wireless networks, ICS

Hello... first post. Apologies if this has been spelled out before,
although I haven't yet found the answer by searching forums. Sorry for
the length but I wanted to make sure its all clear.

I'll start with the current setup:

I have a desktop PC running Windows 2000 Professional, with two PCI
network cards installed: A wired ethernet adaptor, and an 802.11b
wireless network adaptor card. The stock antenna of the wireless card
has been replaced with an external 15dbi antenna which is positioned to
pick up the wireless signal from my neighbor's house (we share the
connection as well as its fee). In Network and Internet Connections,
this particular connection is called "Internet Connection". I'll call
the neighbor's wifi network "NeighborHouse".

The situation, part 1:

Because the source of the signal is far out of range for my laptops
with built-in wifi at home, I needed a way to repeat that signal in
order for the laptops to connect to the internet. I did this by
creating a new second network, feeding off the first, by following
these steps: On the PC above, I turned on Internet Connection Sharing
for "Internet Connection" in Network and Internet Connections. I
proceeded to enter a static IP address of 192.168.0.1 for the ethernet
adaptor ("Local Area Connection"). Next, using the browser
configuration utility of a D-Link DI-524 wireless router, I changed the
router's default IP address to 192.168.1.1, because its default address
of 192.168.0.1 would conflict with the static IP of the ICS network
connections mentioned above. After following these steps, I
successfully completed the creation of a new, separate wireless network
in my own home, using my neighbor's originating signal. I'll call this
new wireless network "Home".

Part 2:

I have an Airport Express Base Station in a different room on the other
side of my house, and it's connected to a stereo and a USB printer. If
the Airport Express was configured to create its own network, I would
have to disconnect my laptops from the Home network and reconnect them
to the Airport network in order to stream AirTunes via iTunes, or print
wirelessly through the Airport Express. The solution was to instead
configure the Airport Express (via its configuration utility) to be a
client of the Home network. As a result, my laptops can be connected to
the internet via the Home network, meanwhile having uninterrupted
access to the Airport Express print and audio functions.

Part 3:

The desktop PC running Internet Connection Sharing is also the home of
the external hard drives containing my music collection. While some of
those MP3s are on my laptops, and while I can always connect my laptops
temporarily to those external hard drives to access and copy those
files, the vast majority of the music library remains stationary on
those hard drives, connected to that desktop PC.

The problem:

My desktop PC is perpetually connected to the "NeighborHouse" network.
In order for my desktop PC to access the Airport Express functions
(particularly to stream AirTunes from my music library to the Airport
Express to the connected stereo on the other side of my house), I have
to disconnect the desktop PC from NeighborHouse and reconnect the PC's
Internet Connection to the Home network. Once this is accomplished, my
desktop PC has access to the Airport Express functions, and that works
just fine. However, as soon as I make that switch from NeighborHouse to
Home, the Internet Connection Sharing setting on the PC is rendered
useless, as the originating source signal is no longer connected to my
PC. As a result, I rarely make the switch on my desktop PC from
NeighborHouse to Home, because it then severs my internet connection.

I'm now trying to figure out how to remedy this situation. If I were to
install a second wireless network adaptor in the desktop PC, is there a
way that I could maintain the entire setup I described above, while
simultaneously connecting the second wireless network adaptor to the
Home network? In this scenario, the desktop PC would remain connected
to the neighbor's internet source signal, continue to send that signal
via ICS through the D-Link router's WAN port, and continue to provide
the laptops access to the internet via the Home network as a result.
Meanwhile, the desktop PC, via its second network adaptor and a newly
created Local Area Connection, would be simultaneously connected as a
client to the Home network, and thus have access to the Airport Express
functions.

If anyone has any opinions on whether this would work, what I would
need to do to make it work, or specific issues that I would need to
consider and changes to the setup I would need to make, etc, I would
love to hear them. Thanks!

- Michael



googolplecks@gmail.com

Basically, you use a local network connected to the internet through your
desktop. Why? You could configure a bridge to extend the Neighbor's internet
connection to your home lan, wirelessly and/or wired. The desktop would be
just another PC in your lan. Wouldn't that solve your problems?

Paul

When I was first setting this thing up, I did try repeatedly to use a
bridge to accomplish this same thing, some 12 months ago, consulting
with tech support at Belkin, D-Link, Linksys, and Microsoft, and
getting absolutely no results... I finally resorted to setting up this
ICS arrangement. It looks like I just wasn't looking for the assistance
in the right place.

Nonetheless, with my current setup as described above, is it possible
to do what I'm asking about? If so, I can get away with resolving the
problem for the cost of a $6 wireless network adaptor, vs a $50+
bridge, and I'll also know whether this is possible for other
variations of this arrangement in the future. If it is not possible,
I'll probably move on to try bypassing the ICS altogether, but I'd like
confirm this first... Any comments are very welcome... Thanks again!

> Because the source of the signal is far out of range for my laptops
> with built-in wifi at home, I needed a way to repeat that signal in
> order for the laptops to connect to the internet. I did this by
> creating a new second network, feeding off the first, by following
> these steps: On the PC above, I turned on Internet Connection Sharing
> for "Internet Connection" in Network and Internet Connections. I
> proceeded to enter a static IP address of 192.168.0.1 for the ethernet
> adaptor ("Local Area Connection"). Next, using the browser
> configuration utility of a D-Link DI-524 wireless router, I changed the
> router's default IP address to 192.168.1.1, because its default address
> of 192.168.0.1 would conflict with the static IP of the ICS network
> connections mentioned above. After following these steps, I
> successfully completed the creation of a new, separate wireless network
> in my own home, using my neighbor's originating signal. I'll call this
> new wireless network "Home".

Could you show me step by step how you were able to repeat the signal? I
need to do the same thing with my network and I'm not sure where to start.
Thanks for your help.