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Setting
up Internet Connection Sharing (Windows 2000)
ICS allows two or more networked computers to share a
single Internet connection, and it's not that hard to
set up, as long as you do it properly. If you perform
the following steps, in order, you should be able
to get it right the first time.
Note: don't be intimidated by the length of this
article. It shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes or
so to set up ICS (assuming you have the proper hardware
installed). A lot of what's here covers various "what
if" situations.
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What You Need
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In order to
get ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) to work, you'll
need the following items:
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At least two computers.
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A functioning ethernet card properly installed in
each computer. Refer to the documentation that comes
with your ethernet cards for proper driver
installation and setup.
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If you're sharing a DSL, cable modem, or other
ethernet-based Internet connection, the computer with
the connection must have two ethernet
cards installed. (Microsoft doesn't tell you about
this one!)
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The network must be cabled correctly. 10base-T or
100base-T, category-5 patch cables, and an ethernet
hub are recommended. If you have only two computers,
you can forgo the hub, and use a Category 5 crossover cable instead.
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One of the computers must have a dial-up internet
connection, , or a high-speed connection, such as DSL, a
cable modem, or T1.
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There is no minimum connection speed, but you
should keep in mind that when two users are
downloading using the shared connection simultaneously
(the worst-case scenario), each user will experience
half of the original performance. In other words, you
probably don't want to bother sharing a 14.4k analog
modem connection.
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The computer with the
Internet connection must be running a version of
Windows that supports Internet Connection Sharing.
Cabling Overview
Once you
have the correct protocols and drivers set up on the
host and each of the clients, the next step is to figure
out the cabling. Without the internet connection, your
network should look something like this:
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(Naturally, the number of PCs and printers on your
network will probably be different.) The next step is to
figure out how the Internet Connection will be wired.
For ICS to work, your setup should look like this:
Note that the Internet
connection can be in the form of a phone cable plugged
into an analog modem, an ethernet cable plugged into a
second network card, or some other connection plugged
into the appropriate card.
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Setting Up the Host
The
first step to setting up ICS is to configure the host,
the computer with the Internet Connection that will be
shared. All the other computers are called "Clients,"
and are discussed in the following
section.
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Double-click on the Network and Dial-up
Connections icon in Control Panel, or right-click on the My Network Places
desktop icon and select Properties.
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Here, you should have at least two connections
listed: one for your Internet Connection, and one for
your Local Area Connection. If they're not there, your
network is not ready - install the proper hardware and
software (described above)
and try again.
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By default, the available connections will named
for the network adapters they represent; to make
things easier, I recommend renaming them as shown in
this screenshot:
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Right-click on the entry corresponding to your
Internet connection, and select Properties .
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Among the installed components listed in the
General tab, the following should be checked
here
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Client for Microsoft Networks
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NetBEUI Protocol
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Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
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If you don't see one or more of these items,
you'll need to add them by clicking Install.
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If there are extra entries, just ignore them. The
exceptions are NDISWAN or any ATM protocols - if you encounter
a problem later on, you might have to remove these
to use ICS.
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If you have any other
Internet sharing solutions installed on any of the machines,
make sure they have been removed or disabled on each
machine.
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At this point, it's a good idea to make sure your
current Internet connection is operational by testing
it (load a web page or something). If all is well,
then you can continue.
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Choose the Sharing tab, and turn on the
Enable Internet Connection Sharing for this
connection option.
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here's nothing useful
behind the Settings
button, so just click Ok when you're done.
That's it! (Most likely, Windows 2000 will not make
you restart, although if you are prompted, do so now.)
Setting Up the Clients
The client machines don't require any special software; just a properly
installed, network-capable operating system (such as Windows
95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP ), or even Unix,
FreeBSD, Linux, or Mac. Do the following for each
client machine that will be using the shared connection:
(Note that these details are for Windows 2000 clients.)
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Double-click on the Network and Dial-up
Connections icon in Control Panel, or right-click on the My Network Places
desktop icon and select Properties.
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Here,
you should have at least one connection listed for your Local Area
Connection. If it's not there, your network is not ready - install the
proper hardware and software
and try again. Any other connections can be ignored,
although you may want to disable them for now
(right-click and select Disable).
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Right-click on the entry corresponding to your
local area connection, and select Properties.
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Among the installed components listed in the
General tab, the following should be checked
here
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Client for Microsoft Networks
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Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
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If NetBEUI is checked for this connection,
un-check it now. It's not needed, and may prevent ICS
from working.
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Next, highlight the Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) entry and click Properties.
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Choose the Obtain an IP address
automatically and Obtain DNS server address
automatically options.
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Click Advanced, and make sure the various
lists in the IP Settings, DNS, and
WINS tabs are all empty.
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Click Ok and then Ok again when
you're done. (Most likely, Windows 2000 will not make
you restart, although if you are prompted, do so now.)
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Once these steps have been performed, Internet
Connection Sharing should be in effect, and all
connected and properly-configured client computers
should have access. You can test each client by
loading a web page or using some other Internet
application (e.g. Ping, telnet, etc.).
Troubleshooting
Ideally, you
shouldn't have to install any software or do any more
configuration on any of the clients. However, this isn't
an ideal world, so if this doesn't work as expected, try
the following:
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You know that ICS is working if you have Internet
access on at least one client. If you don't, the first
thing to do is to make sure the Internet connection is
working on the host computer. Conversely, if one
client is working, and another isn't, it's definitely
a problem with that client.
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If you're sharing an ethernet-based connection,
such as DSL or a cable modem, make sure the host
computer has two
network cards.
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Go back through Setting
Up the Host and Setting
Up the Clients and make sure all the necessary
components and protocols are properly installed.
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Check to see if you have any firewall software
installed on the host or clients; for that matter,
check for any installed software or settings that
might be inappropriate to the type of connection you
have.
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If you're using special connection software for
use with your DSL or cable (such as the feeble NTS
Enternet 300 software), you may have to change
some settings to get ICS to work. Also, if you
find that you can't access certain websites from the
client machines, see this
article.
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If all else fails, try uninstalling the two
connections on the host computer, and then
reinstalling the necessary drivers. (This has been
known to work on more than one occasion.)
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