Using Windows ICS without DHCP

[Floppyman]

Hi all,

Here's a how to on how to use Windows ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) on your clients without having to use DHCP. You can also get ICS to work on the clients by giving your clientsa static IP addresses. Here's how:

Note: This requires only a modification on the ICS clients (not the server (the comp with the internet connection).

1. On your client open up the network properties window. Can be found in control panel, you can also right click on the network neighborhood icon on the desktop and select properties.

2. Go to the TCP/IP properties of your network card.

3. On the IP address tab enter an ip address eg. 192.168.0.x (as long as it's not the same as the server's IP address) and then the same subnet address the server has (eg. 255.255.255.0)

4. Next go to the gateway tab and enter the IP addresses of the server as the Gateway address. eg. if your server's ip address is 192.168.0.1, you would enter 192.168.0.1

5. Next go to your DNS configuration. Enable DNS, and on the host field enter the name of the server. eg. if the server's name is Bob you would enter Bob. Under the DNS Server Search Order, enter the IP address of the server again.

6. Click ok, and ok again to dismiss the Network properties window and go ahead and reboot, your system may boot a little faster since you now have a static IP, rather than one assigned by the server. After reboot try connecting to the internet, it should work.

Notice: You can do this on all your clients, just make sure you don't give any two the same IP address. Also note I wrote this how to with Win98se in mind so the names for some of the options (eg. DNS Server Search Order) could vary slightly in name in other OS's (i.e. winME, win2k, winXP etc.)

Hope this helps someone out. If you have questions and/or comments, please post below.

[Blakhart]

Off topic, but if I have a game server(98SE) that is on 24/7, would activateing, but not using, ics, close some ports to traffic that are otherwise wide open?
It is behind a router but I wonder if there are measures I can take to make it a little more hardened.

Thanks

Chris

[RenegadeKing]

Get a firewall.