Connecting PC to the internet through my laptop.

[ChaoticMonk]

Hi all,

I'm staying at a friends' who has a wireless router set up in the house.

My laptop has a wireless card built in but the PCs dont.

I can get on the internet fine with the laptop.

Is there anyway I can connect the PCs to the internet without having to buy wireless NICs for them?

I know theres some 'Allow computers to connect to the internet through this connection' option or something similar somewhere but where do I find it and how do I make use of it?

Things that I can make use of:

A wired router (Lynksys BEFSR81)
A wired Workgroup switch (Lynksys EZXS55W)
A wireless router (?)
2 PCs with your average NICs
5 standard CAT cables
2 laptops with wireless & wired cards built in
Electricity 😀

Hopefully someone here can come up with something cos I honestly dont have a clue :x

Thanks 😀

 

[ojai00]

You can set up Internet Connection Sharing on the laptop and the other computers should be able to get on the Internet through your laptop. I forget how to do it but you can do it through your Internet Explorer options (Connections tab) or through the Network connections in Control Panel.

Router (if you'd like) <---- Internet connection sharing on your laptop <---- switch <---- other computers.

Edit: here's a guide Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing

 

[nweaver]

if the router is using the 192.168.0.X stuff, ICS won't work, as an FYI

 

[ChaoticMonk]

Originally posted by: nweaver
if the router is using the 192.168.0.X stuff, ICS won't work, as an FYI

Anyway of working around it?

 

[RebateMonger]

Why bother when you can often find USB WiFi adapters for $10 each?

CompUSA is selling ATT adapters for $2 this week.

 

[JackMDS]

If the laptop has a wire NIC too, and it is running WinXP Pro.

You can connect it to the switch plug the two computers to the switch and bridge the Wireless and the wired NICs in the Laptop.

:sun:

 

[ChaoticMonk]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
If the laptop has a wire NIC too, and it is running WinXP Pro.

You can connect it to the switch plug the two computers to the switch and bridge the Wireless and the wired NICs in the Laptop.

:sun:

Yes it does have a wire NIC too and is indeed running winxp pro.

I will try this and see how it goes 😀

RebateMonger: 😱 guess I shouldn't of been looking at the $50 wireless linksys PCI cards at wallmart lol I will check this out in the after noon...thanks for the heads up 😀

 

[ChaoticMonk]

YYAYY it worked 😀

Bridged the Wired and wireless NICS on my laptop then connected the ethernet cable from my laptop to the first slot on my linksys switch and plugged the PCs to the other 2 slots opened up IE and BAM everything loaded 😀

Thankyou all very much.

 

[ChaoticMonk]

Well....it kinda works :s

After about 5-7 mins my connection drops and I have no idea why but if I open up the browser on my laptop the connection is back up instantly.

Eg. if I'm downloading something on my PC or playing an online game at some point it freezes and if I hit refresh on the browser on my laptop the game/download on my PC carries on.

I checked the power management settings on my laptop and PC and they seem fine so I have no idea.

Any idea why this is happening?

 

[ChaoticMonk]

Anyone? :x

 

[nweaver]

Not sure why, but I have always seen these types of issues when bridging wireless/wired on a laptop.