File sharing on my ad hoc network

[GodlessAstronomer]

I have a home network with 4 computers plugged into a router which plugs into a modem. One of these computers has a wireless USB dongle and a laptop connects to this computer and shares the internet connection. File sharing works perfectly between the 4 computers connected to the router and I'm able to share files between the laptop and the desktop through the ad hoc connection but I can't see the other three computers from my laptop. Does anyone know how I can share files between the laptop and the other three computers? Sorry if this story is a little convoluted

Diagram:

Laptop
| (wireless ad hoc)
|
Desktop 1--- Router---Modem---Series of tubes
Desktop 2-----|||
Desktop 3------||
Desktop 4-------|


Want to be able to share between Laptop and Desktops 2,3,4.

 

[TheKub]

(I believe) The issue at hand is that the PC with the wireless is only routing internet traffic (hence ICS) and not network requests. What is the IP addresses of all the PCs plugged into the router? What are the IPs of the 2 wireless adapters?

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

The desktops have IPs 192.168.1.10* and the two ad hoc PCs are 192.168.0.* on the wireless network. I don't want to mess around with the wireless adapter IPs if I can avoid it because it makes ICS a total PITA if they're not in that format.

 

[drebo]

The issue is that the laptop (and wireless adapter of the first PC) is in a different network segment than the other three computers. As such, you will not see them through the My Network Places area of Windows (which relies on NetBIOS).

What happens if you try to access one of the shares directly by IP address (eg. go Start->Run and type in \\192.168.1.104\sharename)?

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: drebo
What happens if you try to access one of the shares directly by IP address (eg. go Start->Run and type in \\192.168.1.104\sharename)?

I do not believe that will work due to your subnet most likely being 255.255.255.0 (you can still give it a shot). If it doesn't work you can try changing the DHCP on your router to push out 192.168.0.10* to your desktops (you most likely have to do a ipconfig /release then a /renew after you make the tweak to get the new addresses). Even that Im not entirely sure will work because I don't know the scope of ICS and its routing.

If you don't want to deal with most of this stuff just buy a inexpensive wireless router (>$50) and be done with the whole ad-hoc hack.

 

[drebo]

Of course it will work. The computer with ICS enabled is acting as a basic router. The default gateway of that second network segment (the 192.168.0.0/24) is that first computer, which knows about both networks. It is perfectly capable of routing to either. NetBIOS, however, does not work across that boundary, which is why he should be able to reference the share by IP address even though he cannot see it in My Network Places or reference it by name.