Internet Connection (not) Sharing

Hi!

Yikes how frustrating. Well I'm glad you've solved the mystery now.
ZoneAlarm Plus/Pro support ICS.

Best wishes,

Andrew

Yes, I'm downloading a demo of ZA PRO now.

I'm also downloading a version of Kerio's firewall to test. I never heard of this one before.

I seem to remember something called TINY FIREWALL or some such thing. I may search for it also.

I've previously tried Sygate on someone's recommendation but when I ran SHIELDS-UP against it, it looked like Swiss cheese - many, many ports left open.

It's baaaaaack ....

A few weeks ago, this problem re-surfaced. So, I decided to switch the host with one of the clients.

I removed ICS from the host and reinstalled it on the client. I read Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article 238135 (How to Troubleshoot Internet Connection Sharing Problems) and followed all it's advice such as assigning static IP addresses on the host & client machine.

Things went well for a few days and then the client could not see through the host to the web.

One of the sections of the article states "Without a proper IP address, the client will be unable to communicate with the Host computer. If the client computer does not obtain an IP address from the Host, the DHCP service may be disabled. To enable the DHCP service on the Host computer ..." and then asks me to "install" the file "DHCP_on.inf" from the Windows 98 CD-ROM and then restart Windows.

This works every time the client cannot see the web through the host - about 1/2 the time. I've copies this DHCP-on.inf file to the host's desktop so it can be more easily run.

Why is this "installation" failing to stick?

Is there a way (other than manually) to have this install of the inf file done whenever the host shuts down so? Is there another way to insure this installation?

Thanks in advance,

Terry

[PS> I've given up on running a firewall with ICS. I've looked at Kerio and TinyFirewall but they're both demos. Sygate installs but gets flaky with ICS. And, ZoneALarm's documentation says it won't work with ISC either.]

Hi!

I've no idea why you're experiencing such a peculiar problem.
Why not configure the IP addresses of the machines manually since there are not that many of them? Set the host IP and mask to 192.168.0.1, 255.255.255.0 and then configure the clients with different address from the same subnet and ensure they all have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway and DNS server address of 192.168.0.1.
Statically configured like this it shouldn't matter if the DHCP Allocator goes pear shaped on the host!

Worth a go....?!
Best wishes,

Andrew

PS. ZoneAlarm Plus and Pro support ICS but the Free version does not.

Actually, the IP addresses are configured statically. The client uses the host IP address as it's gateway and the host IP address is the first in the client's list of DNS servers (our ISP is the second).

It makes no sense to me.

Whenever the client can not see the host, installing DHCP_ON.INF on the host and restarting windows seems to fix the problem.

Hmm!

That's odd. If wonder if that Inf is doing something other than just DHCP - maybe installing NAT components or the DNS Proxy. With an entirely static IP configuration it shouldn't matter if DHCP dies.

I've just been trying to find how to install an INF from the command line - you could then add the requisite command to a startup key in the registry. After a quick websearch I've found a method pertaining to Win2000. Perhaps it works on Win98 too?
http://www.win2ktech.com/faq/faqs4/r...htm#registry17
I presume the bit at the end of the line is the path to the file. Not sure what the 128 is though.

In your position I'd be installing WinGate instead!!
Best wishes,

Andrew

Thanks Andrew.

You link gives the following as a line command to install a INF file:

C:\> rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction DefaultInstall 128 .\.inf

I assume that ".\." is somehow the path to the "inf" file but I don't know the form. Do I use "c:\..\..\dhcp_on.inf" or something else?

I also found the following as a line command to shut down windows 98:

C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows

Since a windows restart has to follow the installation of the dhcp_on, it needs to be installed on shutdown not on startup. Is there a way to make a windows desktop shortcut with TWO command lines - one for the INF install and one for the shutdown. I know how to create a shortcut with a one-line command but don't know if there is a way to have two lines of code.

Thanks again,

I can't believe I'm so stupid.

Of course I know how to create a multiple line batch file .... DUH. I still have a few BASIC programs that I run through batch files within Windows. There's no reason those file could not have 2 command lines and be accessed through a shortcut on the desktop.

What I don't know is what format to use as a path to the INF file ... but I guess I could just try it.

Andrew, I spoke too soon.

I can create a multi-line batch file. But when I try to run it through a shortcut on the desktop, Windows balks at trying to shut down with a DOS window still open.

I guess I could use 2 command line shortcuts - one to install the INF file and the other to do the actual shutdown.

Well, I tried a shortcut with:

c:\windows\rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction DefaultInstall 128 c:\data\shutdown\dhcp_on.inf

and one with

c:\windows\rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction DefaultInstall 128 data\shutdown\dhcp_on.inf

Both times, windows says it cannot find the file.

The file is located "c:\data\shutdown\dhcp_on.inf" so I don't know what else to try.

What form of the path should I be using? As you can tell, I'm not very versed in DOS.

Upon closer inspection, it is the file "syssetup" that cannot be found.

Maybe this won't work for Win98.

Hi!

Yeah looks as though that's not going to work. There ought to be a Win98 equivalent though, but that was the only match I got on a websearch.

Best wishes,

Andrew

Thanks Andrew.

I've been searching the web for comments on the DHCP file(s) but began wondering ...

The third machine on this ICS network has ALWAYS worked through the network no matter what settings the other machines had or no matter which machine was the host.

So I printed it's network settings out.

It's IP ADDRESS setting is set to AUTOMATIC, it uses DHCP for WINS resolution, has no GATEWAY and does have the host IP address as the first DNS SERVER SEARCH.

So, I changed my machine (client) to an automatic IP address setting.

Didn't have to re-install DHCP on the host to get the client to see the net.

So far so good. We'll see how much longer this works.

I guess it's a matter of trial and error here.

Thanks for your continued help.

Terry,

Wish I had seen this posting earlier as I could have saved you some headaches. Went through this exact sort of problem about a year ago. Same conclusion: ZA Free doesn't support ICS. My solution was to download Kerio firewall as it is free for up to 5 PCs I believe. Been working great all that time except when the host contracted MSBlast because my daughter turned off the virus checker last August while I was on vacation. So if you haven't put money down for ZA, you cann save the $40 or whatever the current fee is.

Thanks J.

I tried Kerio and had problems with it. Of course, those problems could have been with ICS and not with Kerio.

My main concern at this point is getting ICS to work correctly. Once I'm sure that it's working I'll address the firewall problem. And I'll take your recommendation and start with Kerio though Sygate finally did work well - until the ICS problem resurfaced.

They're talking about installing a T1 line here to alleviate this problem (and cut down cost of the computers having to dial up individually all day long) but there's a fourth computer that would have to be hooked up and I NEVER could get it working with the current network setup.

That's another headache!

Thanks again for the help here. The only "expertise" I have on networking comes from this forum and programs on the cable station TECH-TV yet I'm expected to solve all these problems by, to quote my boss, "pushing the right button".