Sharing EVDO with ICS on XP Pro

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

I have my Kyocera EVDO card working well in my hp laptop running XP Pro. The connection came up without a hitch this Saturday. Great to not be crawling along on dial-up anymore. I tried to share this internet connection over a working home network which links 2 other pc's through a Linksys router and ethernet cables. Each pc can see each other and I can share files but I was unable to get IE to see the internet on the XP Pro client machine. Has anyone made this work? I don't know what to try now. I switched off all the firewalls and have ICS enabled on the host laptop.

thanks Mark

Walter · EVDO Junkie Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 307

Yes, I have a similar setup that does work. I have a V620 card installed (via a PCMCIA PCI card) in a PC server running Windows XP Pro and am running three client computers each running Windows XP Home. There is no inherent reason why your client computers running Pro should not connect. After enabling ICS on your laptop, did you run the "Setup a Home or Small Office Network" Wizard on each client PC? This should setup each client correctly. If this is done correctly, then each client should get their IP address from your laptop (starting at IP address 192.168.0.2) and you should see both a LAN connection icon and an Internet Gateway icon under Network Connections. Although ICS is still sometimes flakey and you won't always see the Internet Gateway icon. In fact, sometimes the DHCP service of ICS sometimes seems to just stop working too.

If you have run the wizard already and it still doesn't work, post again and I'll try to give you a few other things to try.

HTH

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

I did start with the connection wizard on the xp client machine and created a second workgroup "workgroup_02" but I got a little jumpy since I already have a working work group "workgroup" which is functioning well and allows me to see and share files between the 3 ps's. I hate to break what I already have. I was hoping that by my enabling ICS on the host pc then the othe 2 client pc's would be able to see the internet as well as the files that they can on the working network but no such luck.

I am using a Linksys wirelss router as a hub but I have never been able to talk to the router using IE. Does this indicate an issue with the router. Would a simple hub work or isn't that the problem.

Unfortunately I don't know enough about networks to go much further with this. I hate using Wizards because you never know what they do and then it is difficult to undo any problems.

Mark

Walter · EVDO Junkie Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 307

OK, I see a couple of potential problems. First, I'm not completely sure what Windows will do with multiple workgroups, so that's one potential issue. It might work OK that way, I'm just not sure. Never tried it myself.

Second, just turning on ICS on the server is not necessarily enough for the clients to use it as the Internet Gateway. The client PCs must also have their Default Gateway IP address set to the IP address of the server (also their DNS server usually is also set to the Server IP). One of the things the Network Setup Wizard does is set these IP addresses. You can change these settings manually by going to Network Connections, right clicking on the connection icon, selecting properties, right clicking on TCP/IP from the list of protocols and selecting properties again. This should then show a window with the various IP settings.

Third, the fact that you're using a router as a hub has me suspicious. I take it you have the server and the 2 clients connected on the LAN hub/switch side of the router and nothing connected to the WAN connector of the router? Did you configure the router to *NOT* be a DHCP server? When you use ICS on your server, it wants to be the DHCP server and it will set its own IP address to 192.168.0.1 (the user has no control over this). So if your router is still also acting as a DHCP server, there may be a conflict. Then again, your router's IP address may be on a different subnet (192.168.1.1 for example). If so you would have no conflict, but it would explain why you cannot talk to the router.

At this point, I would suggest checking the various IP addresses of your machines and report. Select the connection icon in Network Connections and it should show you the details in the lower left corner of the window. If everything is typical, then your server should report:
IP Address: 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Manually Configured
While your clients should report:
IP Address: 192.168.0.2 (or 3 or higher)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Configured by DHCP

BTW, I share your loathing of Windows Wizards but sometimes you gotta live with them.

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

I really appreciate your help with this. Yes I am just using the LAN hub side of the router and there is nothing on the WAN side. Someone else suggested that I turn of the DHCP on the router but since I have never been able to talk to the thing that is a bit difficult. Would it be better to just get a hub instead. I don't mind throwing money at this if I can only get it to work. I think that hubs are pretty cheap. Can you recommend one and I will order one from Newegg, or is there a method to talk to the Linksys Router. It is a BEFW11S4 Ver 4

I will try the things that you suggested tomorrow. I am a little too tired tonight to do a good job. I have an early start in the morning but will look at some of this when I am fresher tomorrow afternoon. Should my first thing be to try a hub?

The second work group was created only on one client pc ( the xp one) using the rotten Wizard in my hour of desperaton. I just checked and it's not there anymore only my original "Workgroup" - that's it's name. The other client pc is a 98SE machine which I am using right now and it is still connected via a dialup connnection. I want to get xp to xp working first - that should be a little easier to do I think.

thanks Mark

Walter · EVDO Junkie Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 307

I would not go out and buy a hub just yet. If you do, you'll want to get a switch rather than a hub. I won't go into the differences, but switches are better and these days they are pretty much just as cheap. I recommend D-Link but that's just my personal preference. In my experience D-Link stuff is cheap and just works with minimum hazzle. But basic home Ethernet switches are pretty much fool proof these days, so just about any manufacturer will do. NewEgg has the smallest D-Link switch for $15, so that's hard to beat. Here's the URL:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817111009>

Anyway, you probably want to check the IP addresses first because that very well may give a hint as to what is going on. The fact that file sharing is working between the machines hints that the router is doing the basic hub/switch work OK, but the IP addresses will tell for sure.

As to talking to the Linksys router. You need to find out what IP address it defaults to. It should be in the users manual. Then just type the IP address in your browser as if it was a URL. I know the last NetGear router I used defaulted to 192.168.1.1 for an IP address. Last resort, you might try that.

And yes, stick with the XP to XP connection for now. My understanding is that 98 to XP can sometimes be even trickier.

Good Luck.

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

On the topic of talking to the Linksys router. I typed the URL that the manual said, into IE and nothing happended. I got a web page not found type of message. What next? Is the router broken? Not sure what makes the url go out through the LAN port - are there some settings to make that happen or is the router broken?

Sorry for so many questions but the failure to talk to the router has me stumped.

Mark

RoundSparrow · EVDO User Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 56

I've had no problems sharing out my Kyocera KPC-650 to either my WiFi (peer to peer) or LAN (Ethernet) systems. Same as I would share any standard dial-up connection.

I'm on Windows XP SP2.

brendanhoar · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 09 Jun 2005 Posts: 140

Just a hunch, but some firewalls/routers (esp. those with multiple internal networks, e.g. wired and wireless) have a feature called "loopback" that makes internal hosts available to other internal as if they are external connections. This can cause unexpected behaviors and sometimes needs to be disabled.

-brendan

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

Hi Wallter et al

I went ahead and ordered the D-Link switch that you suggested. Couldn't find the Linksys manual but I know that when I had the manual in front of me the 98 machine couldn't talk to it. It might be good to just get that confusion out of the formula

I got some info by right clicking the LAN icon and going into
Status >Support

Host
Address Type Assigned by DHCP
IP Addrss 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway 192.168.1.1

For the client:
I got some info by right clicking the LAN2 icon and going into Status>Support

Address Type Assigned by DHCP
IP Addrss 192.168.1.102
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway 192.168.1.1

Their is a details button which has more stuff

Does this help

Mark

Walter · EVDO Junkie Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 307

OK, I think those those IP addresses indicate what's going on. Looks to me like the Linksys router is acting as DHCP server to your client PC. If your client PC was getting it's IP address from your PC running ICS, it would be a 192.168.0.x address, not a 192.168.1.x address. So the router is providing the addresses (as it should when DHCP is on) and telling your client PC to use it (the router) at 192.168.1.1 as the gateway. Unfortunately, right now you have no way to tell the router what IP address *it* should use as gateway. Plus the router expects this gateway to be on the WAN side of the router. Using a switch instead of a router should fix this and let ICS act as DHCP server to your clients.

In the meantime, you still might be able to configure the router. Type in your browser the following:

http://192.168.1.1

It's very likely this will get you to the "home page" of the router. Of course, more than likely you'll also need to log in: so you'll need to know the default username and password. If you manage to get logged in, then just look for an entry in one of the router screens that will turn DHCP off.

Another approach would be to manually configure your IP addresses on your client PC. Just pick something in 192.168.0.x IP range. Just don't use 0, 1, or 255 for x. This will bypass all the DHCP stuff.

Or just wait for your D-Link switch. Smile

Good luck.

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

I will take another look for the Linksys manual. I think the password is Admin. The manual shouldn't be too far away, I am normally pretty careful with them. Maybe I can find an on-line copy. I am hopeful that the Switch will get things working for me.

Mark

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

I found the Linsys manual and yes the url to configure the router is 192.168.1.1 and the password is admin. I tried using IE on both the xp machines and it sits forever trying to connect and finally comes back with an error message that the connection timed out

message - 101 Connection timed out.

Does that mean something is wrong with the router - I have never been able to talk to it but never needed to until now or is it a configuraton issue with IE or XP. The switch should be here in a few days.

thanks Mark

Walter · EVDO Junkie Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 307

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 107

The switch arrived today and I plugged in the three pc. Unfortunately the 98 machine is now dropped of the network and the xp machine still won't see the internet.

The xp clinet machine LAN connection says that it has limited or no connectivity. It is having problems because it is saying that the network did not assign a network address to the computer.

I would appreciate your advice. Should this stuff be so hard

thanks Mark