Making my PC act as a router

[AzuthZero]

Is it possible to make my PC act as a router? I remember reading somewhere that a router is pretty much a very simple PC, so i was wondering if I could do it. My computer has 2 ethernet ports, so I was wondering if I could have the internet come in through one port, have my computer do the switching, and then have the other port connect to a different PC (or Xbox in my case).

See, my college has it so you can only register one MAC address for your internet connection, so only my PC can connect to the internet, and I don't have a router or switch with me. I have two regular ethernet cables to connect everything.

I don't see why this wouldn't be possible, but I really don't know how to go about setting it up. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Chainzsaw]

Yes, I believe you can do something like you say.

Of course it will be software based, but I can't remember any progs off hand.

 

[ZobarStyl]

I do the exact same thing in the exact same situation (must register a single MAC address per port on college campus). You need 2 ethernet ports to start (you have that). However, you cannot just connect the second port to the XBox/PS2/Different PC. You need to connect it to a router or switch (both will have the same effect for what you will be doing) then connect the router or switch to however many devices you want. In XP, you then set the Local Area Connection Properties, under the Advanced tab, Internet Connection Sharing, check "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection." Then tweak the second PC to accept the connection (you may or may not need to have the switch<->second ethernet port set to Uplink). PS2's and XBox's usually aren't finicky, they work fast or not at all.

 

[AzuthZero]

Ahh, I see. So I need to buy a switch then...... The way I used to do it before was just use a crossover cable connecting my PC and Xbox, but one of my friends lost it I was hoping there'd be a program that would let my PC do the switching that the switch/router would do so I could just use the other patch cable I have instead.

Oh well.
Thanks

 

[Chapbass]

I used to do this exact thing actually (only it was two PCs).

i used a program called analogx proxy on the computer connecting to the net, then plugged in another computer into the first computers other network card.

www.analogx.com

look under network software.


Its been an awful long time though, so it may or may not work.

 

[CraigRT]

you can use what ZobarStyl suggested, except you do not need a switch if you wish to have just 1 other PC connected.

you can use Win2k or WinXPs built in ICS (internet connection sharing), share the main connection with the 2nd ethernet card, and plug the 2nd PC into the main PC's 2nd ethernet port via a CROSSOVER cable, and voila, easy connection sharing.
I had my home network setup like that for almost 3 years, and never a problem.

 

[ZobarStyl]

Yeah, crossover if you got it, I had a router and a switch lying around, so I used the switch, plus that way I can connect a PS2 and another PC. Whatever works for you, switches are cheap and good to have for LANs.

 

[V00D00]

internet connection sharing?

 

[AzuthZero]

Chapbass, would you happen to have details on how to set that program up correctly? I installed it and ran it, but it seems like there's nothing to configure. Also, since I'm trying to connect my xbox to the internet this way, would it work? Do I need to change anything on the second computer(xbox in my case) to get it to work?

How my internet is set up now:
internet on ethernet port 1, with a given IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS.
Port 2: nothing, all automatic.

If you could tell me what I need to change in these settings to get it ot work, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise I'm either going to have to wait till Thanksgiving to get my switch at home, or I'm going to have to find a crossover cable.....

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl
I do the exact same thing in the exact same situation (must register a single MAC address per port on college campus). You need 2 ethernet ports to start (you have that). However, you cannot just connect the second port to the XBox/PS2/Different PC. You need to connect it to a router or switch (same thing, really) then connect the router or switch to however many devices you want. In XP, you then set the Local Area Connection Properties, under the Advanced tab, Internet Connection Sharing, check "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection." Then tweak the second PC to accept the connection (you may or may not need to have the switch<->second ethernet port set to Uplink). PS2's and XBox's usually aren't finicky, they work fast or not at all.

If you ever, ever imply that a router and the switch are "the same thing" again, I'm going to bludgeon you with textbooks on Cisco, the OSI model, and "Networking for Dummies."

AzuthZero - Buy a crossover for five bucks, then follow the instructions here - similar articles can be found by Googling for "enabling ICS in Windows XP" or "set up ICS in Windows XP".

Internet -------- Computer ----x---- Xbox

- M4H

 

[ZobarStyl]

M4H, Edited for you, I have both I know the diff, but for what he's doing it doesn't matter if it's a router/switch, which is what I meant. Because his computer is the uplink with the single 'real' IP address, in this case he is acting as the router (ala the thread title) so for him the difference would be neglible. I already admitted a crossover will work fine, I personally often connect more than 1 devices through this method so a relatively cheap switch does the job better than crossover. Chill M4H, have a :beer:

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl
M4H, Edited for you, I have both I know the diff, but for what he's doing it doesn't matter if it's a router/switch, which is what I meant. Because his computer is the uplink with the single 'real' IP address, in this case he is acting as the router (ala the thread title) so for him the difference would be neglible. I already admitted a crossover will work fine, I personally often connect more than 1 devices through this method so a relatively cheap switch does the job better than crossover. Chill M4H, have a :beer:

CCNA and admin experience has trained me to be a ruthless prick when discussing such matters. Sorry for snapping. *puts down weighty 2600-series router and picks up :beer:* They'd still be set up and behave different though.

With a switch, it would go:

Walljack ----- PC ----- switch ----- Xbox

and he'd need to run ICS on the PC "server" to get the Xbox to see Live. A router, he sets up as:

Walljack ----- Router ----- PC
.......................|
.......................\----- Xbox

and he's then firewalled, with both devices acting as "clients" in the relationship.

- M4H

 

[ZobarStyl]

The problem with that is that he cannot set up a normal router to the university connection (or at least I cannot)...you have to log into the system and register your MAC address to that specific port, so if you simply plug in a router, it's not initialized, and if you plug in a router after initializing with a computer connection, then the MAC of the router will not be accepted. In the scenario I described, both look like your first drawing, but the router can take the same spot as the switch, it's simply not being used for it's true purpose, it's dumbed down to a switch's job. Nevermind me, the only reason anyone would do that is if they had a router they weren't using already (aka me), there's no reason for him to go buy one and if he's only using the XBox, he just needs the crossover cable.

 

[PumpActionWalrus]

Clark connect, 22MB just needs a few extra network cards.

 

[Chapbass]

azuth, ill look into it...


like i said its definitely been quite a few years....like...5 or 6.

gimme a little.


and ya know....now that i think about it...

i mightve used a crossover cable between my computers, as the other guys have been saying. in fact im pretty sure now as i think about it.


but hey, its worth a try.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl
The problem with that is that he cannot set up a normal router to the university connection (or at least I cannot)...you have to log into the system and register your MAC address to that specific port, so if you simply plug in a router, it's not initialized, and if you plug in a router after initializing with a computer connection, then the MAC of the router will not be accepted. In the scenario I described, both look like your first drawing, but the router can take the same spot as the switch, it's simply not being used for it's true purpose, it's dumbed down to a switch's job. Nevermind me, the only reason anyone would do that is if they had a router they weren't using already (aka me), there's no reason for him to go buy one and if he's only using the XBox, he just needs the crossover cable.

Couldn't he just find out the MAC address for the router and then change his NIC to that mac, register, then disconnect, change the MAC on the PC back to default then plug in the router?...

 

[AzuthZero]

Thanks for all the replies guys. After all the time I've spent trying to get something like this to work, I just gave up and bought a cheap crossover, so everything works fine now.

Oh, and I CAN use a router here if I had one, I'd just have to make the router clone my PCs MAC address.

Thanks