Ethernet internet link shared over wireless network?

[Grabo]

I've tried to find some comprehensible guide on networking in Windows XP, but after 6 months of OS X, XP networking is yet a buggy, confusing tar-pit-labyrinth of a behemoth-thing.

Does anyone know of any good guide detailing how to 1. Set up a wireless network with an XP machine with a wireless network card, so that others may connect to this network : and through it get internet access via 2. The internet (ethernet cable) connection this same XP machine has?

In essense, this XP machine has the internet connection via an ethernet cable to the internet source, and wants to act wireless router for a couple of macs and pcs.

I feel that just being able to create a dang network that others can see would be a good first step : /

 

[Trooper599]

If it's a home network, I suggest you DONT create an SSID that others can see and connect to. Remember, this is YOUR internet connection therefore anything done off of it is YOUR responsibility.

My friend had the police knocking at his door one day. Apparently someone was connecting to hsi wifi connection and buying things with stolen credit card numbers and shipped to a PO box created under a false name. Apparently over 10,000$ was racked up in illegal charges on multiple credit cards, and the IP that was recorded during those purchases was tied back to his internet connection, and he had a lot of explain...

It's not worth it. Its your connection. You pay for it. You're responsible for it.

 

[RebateMonger]

It doesn't sound like you have a hardware router. Buy a router (WiFi if you wish) and connect that directly to your Cable/DSL/whatever/ modem.

Then, connect your PC (wired or wireless) to the router. Then, find a way to connect the Macintoshes to the router. 🙂

While an XP-based computer CAN share an Internet connection with other computers (ICS, where the XP computer acts as a router), it's a bit messy. If you think that XP networking is complicated now, you'll REALLY think so after playing with ICS.

 

[Grabo]

Trooper599:
No, the network would be WEPed for sure. Sounds like your friend had some bad luck :/

RebateMonger:
That is so. We thought e'd save a little money by not buying one, but ..well, I'll do a bit of research on ICS and we'll see 🙂 Thanks for the info.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Mac was an iBook, I'd let it act router.

 

[Slowlearner]

A router talks to the pcs connected to it in TCP/IP. At work I have a router connected to a bunch of pcs with OSs running from win95 to linux w/o any problems so long as they have valid IPs.

 

[mjia]

I would also suggest you get a wireless router. You can get a decent one for less than $30. Plus, wireless routers often cost less than wireless cards, so you would actually save money by not having to get a wireless card for the directly internet connected machine (assuming it does not already have a wireless card).

But if you decide not too, the other important step in setting up the network is running the wireless network in ad-hoc mode. This mode allows wireless computers to talk with on another without a wireless router.

 

[Grabo]

Slowlearner - yes, we are using the TCP/IP protocol.

DHCP or not, it does not wish to work anyhow.

The problem with creating a shared internet connection in XP (ICS) seems to be this: When choosing that your internet connection should be shared, you have to already have another connection (to a LAN, then) established that you can share the internet connection through. -> The only dang network we can create though seems to be an ad-hoc one (peer to peer) ..and it doesnt seem as if ICS can operate through such network. If we attempt to create a normal wireless network there is simply nothing visible on other machines looking for wireless networks. Only peer-to-peer ones are seen.

Can hardly tell you how much easier and thought-through it is in OS X, but anyway -
we have also now tried setting up a wireless network with an Airport express (Apple marketing name for one of their wireless routers) - but eventhough all machines can connect to it, the pcs cannot get a dynamically assigned IP address, even though the Mac gets one. Grarr. On top of that , the express can´t get an IP address from the wireless modem that we have..yehaaw.

In Swedish, the word corresponding to ´network´ can also mean ´net-pain'. Quite suitable, I think )

 

[Atheus]

Get a router which supports whatever protocols your modem uses (this is probably the reason the airport cannot use it) so if you have a DSL modem with PPPoE then your router must support PPPoE.

Hook the router up to the modem throught the WAN port and then hook your machines up to the router throught the LAN ports and the wireless interface.


BTW, networking is no more difficult on windows than OSX or any other OS. You just need to install a network card and give it an IP, which is simple enough.

 

[Grabo]

Atheus:

There isn't really any protocol that I know of that an Airport base station isn't compatible with;
DHCP is not an issue in either case.

And internet connection sharing.. is too as simple in Windows XP as OS X? I would not agree, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

'Install a network card and give it an IP' - yes, ideally. In reality I told you in my previous post what can happen.