What's the best software router w/free trial?

[DT4K]

I want to be able to share my cable internet connection with several pc's. I only need it for a couple of days of gaming with some friends, so I don't want to buy a hardware router.

I've found the following options:
WinGate
SolidShare
SyGate
WinRoute

It looked like SyGate is the only one you can use without putting 2 NIC's in one PC. Though, I can probably get an extra NIC if I need it.

Does anyone have opinions on any of these, or other ideas on how to share a cable connection for gaming for a couple of days without spending much money?

Oh, each of the PC's has a NIC and I'm borrowing a Linksys 5-port switch, so I've got the internal LAN setup taken care of.

Thanks

 

[n0cmonkey]

ICS is free and easy.

Wingate can be great for crackers looking to make their fun a little more anonymous.

 

[DT4K]

Has anyone used ICS or any of these other programs for online gaming?
The PC's we will be using are running windows XP and win98 (not SE),
so if I use ICS, one of the XP boxes would have to have two NIC's and be the gateway right?

Has anyone used SyGate? If it works well, it would be nice to not have to throw another NIC in.

 

[Tallgeese]

Had excellent experiences with Ositis' WinProxy before I went the hardware router route (no pun intended).

 

[DT4K]

I hadn't seen WinProxy before, but I checked it out and it looks pretty good. Has anyone used more than one of these?
I just want to know if one of these would be better than the others for online gaming.

One of the XP boxes already has two NIC's so I can use any of the programs, as long as it will work with XP.

 

[osage]

If you have an old 486 or P75 computer or can borrow one for a few days..Coyote Linux Router can be downloaded, installed,and configured in about 10 min..even by an amature like myself.
It can be created and setup from a windows machine, no need to learn Linux..
You will need 2 nics for the 486 box however. It runs off a floppy, so you don't even have to mess with someones hard drive if you borrow one.

I just got a P 90 system for $25. at a local Goodwill, works great for stuff like this. Just wanted to offer a different route to consider.

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

Ill second the Coyote Router, is pretty cool🙂

 

[Iron Woode]

I used Sygate on a win98se machine and it works great.

I also use Freesco running on an old p166 that does my routing and firewalling. This approach is better and so easy to setup.

 

[DIRTsquirt]

I concur on the Freesco it is the bomb runs off a floppy no hard needed providing you have at least 16mb of ram..
It will do just about anything even some ftp.. for your mods and game patches

 

[Bglad]

I tried almost all of them and found nothing to work very well, especially ICS. My favorite was Winproxy but setting it up can be very difficult. I spent soooooo much time rebooting computers trying to figure out why ICS never worked. Not to mention when I took the 2nd nic out of the host and got a router, the whole network got much more stable.

Do yourself a big favor and just buy a router. All of the software you are discussing costs money. Spend a few extra bucks and save yourself a big headache.