Win 98 SE ICS Setup Problems

[Web Gecko]

Howdy

I am trying to get ICS working with 2 Win 98 SE nodes on a cat 5 xover
and two HP/Intel 10/100 TX NICs. The NICs, xover and drivers are working fine.
Both PCs can ping each other and both are visible in Network neighbourhood.

I have followed the usual ICS procedure to configure the ICS gateway/ICSHARE dial up machine and the client PC. The gateway is on 192.168.0.1 and the client
PC is on 192.168.0.2 (with a gateway of 192.168.0.1 on the TCP/NIC binding).

The client browser LAN settings (no dialup settings) are set to auto detect
LAN settings.

As far as I can see all the bindings/IPs on the gateway are right in network properties and winipcfg when the gateway is connected (no go on the client).
Do I need DNS configured at one of these ends ? I normally don't need to specify a DNS server when I use one PC i.e. dialup

Internet access works fine on the dialup end just no go on the client.

I am pretty bamboozled with it at the moment. Could anyone suggest what I should check or do to get this thing working ? I've heard that ICS can get ornary at times (could use a proxy I know ) but I want to get it working
anyways.

Any help much appreciated.

cheers

The Web Gecko

[bailey]

maybe I am not understanding your question, but what you are doing seams to be a lot of overkill.
to network to computers running w98se, all you need it a crossover cable and set protocal on both to tcip, and to set both to get ip address to automaticaly, have same guoup name, and differant computer name, then it should work fine,
forgive me if I misunderstood your question


oh yes, only one computer, the one connected to the internet is to have ics running.

[Web Gecko]

Hello Bailey

ICS is just one way to share a single Internet connection across one or more PCs on a LAN. All the stuff I mentioned in my initial post is involved in setting up your PCs (getting them networked) and then setting up ICS on the PC which connects to the Internet (this is the Gateway PC - ICS effectively turns this PC into a NAT [Network Address Translation] router which passes data packets to and fro from the gateway PC dial up adaptor IP address (dynamic - assigned every time you connect) to the ethernet LAN running between the PCs across the crossover (NAT translates between your local LAN IP addresses and
the dynamic IP of the ICSHARE device on the gateway).

Running a Proxy Server program (which also does NAT) on the gateway PC is the other alternative to MS ICS. If this is simpler then yes ICS may be considered overkill.

It is still necessary to install your NIC card on each PC then you install the drivers for it. Then you must install your Windows networking components
(TCP/IP etc..) and ensure your computer names are unique and your PCs are on the same work group. The PCs must be placed on the same IP network otherwise
they will not show up in Network neighbourhood. The PING (Packet INternet Groper) program used in DOS (if your 2 PCs are on say the same private C class
network of 192.168.0.0 or 192.168.0.1 [gateway] and 192.168.0.2 [client PC])
will tell you if your crossover, NICs and drivers [plus networking components]
are working i.e. ping each PC from DOS on each machine or
PC001 [gateway] ping 192.168.0.2
PC002 [client] ping 192.168.0.1

If you get a reply then everything is working and both PCs should be visible
in NetWork neighbourhood. Networking two or more PCs like this is the easy bit
and is testing the basic functionality of the LAN.

ICS is another kettle of fish due to it's usage of NAT and the extra bindings it needs to work. The PCs are networked fine but the client browser is returning Can't Find Server for every site I key in (gateway connected to Internet] (maybe a DNS problem ?).

I wish it was as simple as networking the PCs with TCP/IP and a crossover but it ain't ! I have follwed MSes directions as far as activating ICS on the gateway PC and producing the ICS client diskette. The special EXE is run on the client to configure the client browser and network settings (points the client browser at the gateway PC supposedly).

So far it's still not working.

Anyone got any ideas ? If I need DNS set up somewheres how do I set this up ?

Thanks

and chou for now

The Web Gecko

p.s. then try running a firewall on your gateway and see how this complicates
things.

[dondrd]

Not to but into your post but I'm having the same issues. I have a host connected to the internet thru a cable modem and a network. I "accidently " got it working once but had problems with the host due to vid drivers. I can now connect thru the lan to all pcs and them to me, but the host is the only one that gets out. I have done the ICS thing over and over several times. I don't get it.

[pointd]

It works for me with your setup, the only difference being that I added the ICS host Name and IP address (192.168.0.1) to the DNS tab of the client.

Whilst testing be sure to turn off any firewalls. Once you know its working you can then turn these back on.

[deauxrite]

Try this. Set your second machine (the "client" machine to get the ip address automatically. I know that the static address should work, but I had one a month or so ago that would only work if the ICS machine could assign the address. When it did assign the address it assigned 192.168.0.225 and the system has worked fine since then. Let us know.

[jamesrpm]

Try here for microsoft ICS trouble shooting
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q238135
or go to Analog X and download thier Proxy server
http://www.analogx.com/contents/down...work/proxy.htm

[Web Gecko]

Howdy again

I finally got ICS working. According to MSes info ICS defaults to dynamic IP setup (DHCP) and WINS can be used with this approach.

I stuck with the static IPs I was using. Again according to MSes docs if you remove the sharing adaptor from the networking components list (Network Neighbourhood/Properties) then this will remove the sharing setup and all bindings associated with it.

I found that if I used this approach the components/bindings for standard dialup adaptor/TCP/IP bindings etc looked OK but dialup would not negotiate it's network protocols and so would not connect. To run dialup as per normal on the gateway I had to remove everything and reinstall my client, dialup adaptor, TCP/IP etc..

Also for some reason reinstalling the sharing stuff, even though all components and bindings were listed as per MSes specs produced screwy results. Like when you have sharing set properly
and after you connect and run winipcfg you have your ICSHARE device and your NIC on the gateway. For some reason even though sharing was reinstalled and enabled the PPP adaptor (along with ICSHARE and NIC) was listed in winipcfg with an IP allocation of 0.0.0.0 so it was no go on the gateway.

I had other problems with my system and did a reinstall of 98 SE
and after enabling sharing I set the right DNS IP on the client (along with the initial setup) and bingo ICS was working.

You only have to screw the initial setup of sharing once and it is screwed for good (or so it seems).

My next problem is Zone Alarm free version 2.6.362 as it doesn't seem to be compatible with ICS/NAT . You can enter in trusted IPs but when ICS is enabled ZA blocks all web access (pain in the butt !).
I may need ZA Pro (unless there is a firewall out there which will allow ICS/NAT through).

Thanks again for everyone who helped out with info and ideas.
Basically I had not set the DNS IP on the client. Also the client config floppy written on the gateway did not seem to set the required gateway IP on the client either. I think ICS has some bugs or so I have been told.

cheers and thanx

The Web Gecko

[pointd]

I use the same version of Zonealarm as yourself with ICS with no problem but you have to lower the internet security to Medium and add the IP address of your client to be trusted on your host.

[Web Gecko]

Thanx pointd

I will try your suggestions. I have the client IP as trusted on the
host . I have tried lowering the Internet security level to medium before. We'll see what happens this time.

cheers

The Web Gecko