Trouble with ICS over wireless

[Mr.D]

Hi guys could do with a hand.

After much messing about I finally got my two PCS ( serios workstation and HTPC) talking to each other over a couple of belkin 54g wireless PCI cards. Reception is normally reliable however it is normally very very low ie about 1-2Mbps instead of the mooted 54 ( I think).

However I've managed to get files back and forth no problem and lets face it even 2Mbps is an improvement over my 56k dialup modem. So I follow the instructions on setting up ICS : workstation is host htpc is client. Great I thought now I can load patches direct to the htpc and do a little browsing without clunking up and downstairs.

Cannot get the client pc to access the web . Explorer just gives the DNS error for no connection.

ICS is supposed to be very simple to set up but I can't see anything else to do. Is it perhaps because of the noisy nature of my wireless LAN ( even at its min speed surely its fine for a dialup).

Next thing to try is bringing the HTPC downstairs next to the host machine ( real pain did this twice to get the cards working in the first place)

help me please

[salacious]

I previous had problems with using different version of Windows and ICS. One thing to check it to run ipconfig /all (if using NT4, 2000 or XP) or winipcfg (95/98/Me) and check what the DNS servers are on both PCs. You should be able to ping an external IP address (e.g. 128.9.0.107) from both PCs, if you can't there is something wrong with the ICS setup. If you can check the the DNS servers are set correctly and you could try to ping b.root-servers.net.

Let me know how you get on

[JohnS]

With ICS you check the box which shares the connection which automatically sets that machines ip to 192.168.0.1 and makes it a dhcp server to give out ip's for the other machine/s. If you have put a static ip on the HTPC then you need to fill in the dns server addresses of your isp or you'll get dns errors. If you allow it to get the ip from the "server" then you dont need the dns either.

[Mr.D]

Thanks for the advice much appreciated.

I'll run ipconfig on both machines to check.
The port on the host is set to obtain IP and DNS addresses automatically as is the client. Client is setup to never dial a connection and the LAN settings are all cleared .

ICS and on demand dialing is enabled on my dialup connection on the host . ( I don't have to change anything on the wireless com port I assume).

Thanks for the advice about pinging an outside ip address makes sense. I'm thinking it must be some issue with allocating addresses to the client.

it might be worth trying with static to rule out if it's a problem with DHCP

Also have a read of this:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/

[Mr.D]

You know sometimes it works fine. I can pull files back and forth from machine to machine no problem ( just did it with the latest download of Dscaler in fact). Then other times it won't work at all. Either I can see both machines in network places but get an unreachable error on the remote machine or its simply not there. Meanwhile the belkin utilty is happily telling me what the data transfer rate is in spite of the fact I can't ping the machines.

Sometimes the machine locks up on log in and the only thing that will sort it is to turn the cards off (both machines). Then instantly everything unlocks.

Having the machines next to each other doesn't improve things ( the data rate improves but the connection itself is still unpredictable and thats about it)

You know what I get better overall transfer speed with a cdrw and my legs!

As for ICS ..forget it .... I had a bash at looking into static IP addresses and DNS servers and DHCP but then I fell asleep ( also trying to track down a static IP address when it becomes obvious after 1 hour of tweaking about that both machines are changing at every boot up is just an enchanting experience).

I'm for spending more time with the wife and kids.

I get the same sometimes on my Belkin setup through a 54g router, 1 pci and 1 pcmcia. Wont connect, keep trying and on the 4th go it connects even though I have a steady 48-54mbps connection. Just one of the glitches of an unfinished protocol... or wireless networking in general.

Still it's nice to take the laptop into the garden to get away from the wife and kids

[Mr.D]

See its up fine at the moment. Just pulled some files over no problem. ICS is still knackered though and I can't find anything else left to do.

[salacious]

Here are the ICS settings that I have in the office
PC1 (with ICS) is connected to the Internet
Local IP is 192.168.0.1 Subnet 255.255.255.0
DNS from ISP(Tiscali) 212.74.114.193, 212.74.112.66

PC2
Local IP is 192.168.0.2 Subnet 255.255.255.0
DNS (from ICS) 192.168.0.1

Does this help?
Tell me what settings that the 2 PCs have

[Mr.D]

Thanks man stay tuned it'll take me a couple of days . The missus is about ready to dicorce me if I spend any more time on the wireless issue at the moment.

[Mr.D]

OK I'm pretty sure the IP addresses on both my machines change every time I boot them.

The subnet mask for the host PC is 255.255.0.0 (is this a problem?)

The subnet mask for my dialup is 255.255.255.255 (again is this a problem..isp is LineOne which is Tiscali also.


Just doing some experimentation to see if the local IP addresses are rotating ( I'm assuming the ISP one won't).

[feet14]

You might want to try a proxy server program if you can't get ICS working properly. The disadvantage is that (at least for me) they are a bit difficult to setup (especially for email). I used Spoonproxy which worked ok though it sometimes needed to be restarted.

[owain_thomas]

I don't think it's possible to use Microsoft's ICS (as it comes with XP Pro) with static IPS. It has to have the PC connected to the net as 192.168.0.1 and it also has to have DHCP turned on and allocate the IPs of other machines dynamically.

I've started using wingate as this allows the specific configuration I need.

If I'm wrong about this I'd really like to know so that I can get rid of wingate, but I could find no way of doing it without third party software.

Owain

[Mr.D]

Ah DHCP isn't enabled on the host machine!
Just tried manually asigning IP addresses ...no joy.

[salacious]

Originally posted by Mr.D
The subnet mask for the host PC is 255.255.0.0 (is this a problem?)

The subnet mask for my dialup is 255.255.255.255 (again is this a problem..isp is LineOne which is Tiscali also.

As long as the range overlaps between the machines it wont be a problem. They both need the same mask, if you have a class B mask (255.255.0.0) it just means that you can have 65000 PCs on your network rather than 254 with a class C mask (255.255.255.0)

Dial up subnet masks are always 255.255.255.255 and this isn't a problem.

I use to use Wingate before ICS was available. It works great.