Using a computer as a router, networking woes

[Polizei]

To make things short, Im home from college for a month, and with the holidays coming up, Im too cheap to buy a router. Im using my computer as a router, and connecting the family computer to mine to share an internet connection.

 

I have the internet connected to my computer (via onboard ethernet) and the other computer is connected to this one through a PCI NIC using a straight through ethernet cable (also tried a crossover cable). I ran the network wizard and set my main computer to "Other computer connect to the internet through this one" and the secondary, family computer is set to "Connect to the internet through another computer" option. I ran the wizard exactly how it should be, and it says it completed successfully. Windows firewall is off on both computers.

 

Problem = no internet on secondary computer.

 

Can someone walk me through the steps or tell me how to do this? The wizard within Windows, well, sucks.

 

EDIT: Every now and then, I get an IP Address Conflict balloon popping up from my taskbar. It doesnt give me any "Click here to fix," it just tells me there is a conflict. Both computers are set to obtain an IP address automatically.

[tweak50]

try this...

 

Go to network connections. Make sure both your onboard and pci nics are visible. Select both of them and right click. You should be able to click on an option called 'bridge connections'.

 

I'm in the same boat that you are in and thats all I have to do.

[centy]

Make sure you are using the crossover cable between the "router" and the other PC. Then do what he said ^^

[Polizei]

I did that last night and I kept getting a balloon popping up from the task bar saying there was an IP address conflict. Maybe I was using the straight through cable though, let me try.

 

Works like a charm. Now I jus tneed a faster connection.... Damn advertised 1.5Mbps DSL, 384Kbps provided...

[Thasp]

I'd highly suggest using ipcop or iptables or something else as a router. Windows makes a horrible router.

 

If you install gentoo linux, I can walk you through making it a router.

[Polizei]

No patience to learn a new OS... hassle to format/partition. When I install Vista (Can get it for $20 through my college), I think Im going to dual boot with XP Pro, Vista, and maybe, maybe triple boot with some version of Linux just to be badass...

[tweak50]

I'd highly suggest using ipcop or iptables or something else as a router. Windows makes a horrible router.

 

If you install gentoo linux, I can walk you through making it a router.

 

Don't you need a separate computer to run ipcop? I think it might be a little too much work for only a months use. However you might get a PM from me soon as I will be attempting to set up an ipcop soon because my lynksis router just crumbles under any sort of bandwidth load lol.

[Thasp]

I don't run ipcop at all, I use iptables on a linux machine as a router - I have no prior ipcop experience.

 

I use a linux box that already has other uses as my router, I plugged two NICs into it for that purpose.

[radodrill]

Try setting both machines to automatically acquire the IP address

[Dillweed]

If you're not too concerned about security and only need a temporary setup to connect to the internet using a windows machine, use this program http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/proxy.htm. It works great for http and ftp connections by setting a simple proxy server on the computer you want to share the net connection. I don't know if you are going to be gaming or something funky so YMMV. Setup the program on the computer connected to the internet and somehow connect to it, ie., hub, switch, crossover cable. Then use the proxy setting in your browser to connect to the proxy server and off you go. I could go on, but the readme files explain it better than me. Good luck!

[old_geekster]

To make things short, Im home from college for a month, and with the holidays coming up, Im too cheap to buy a router. Im using my computer as a router, and connecting the family computer to mine to share an internet connection.

 

I have the internet connected to my computer (via onboard ethernet) and the other computer is connected to this one through a PCI NIC using a straight through ethernet cable (also tried a crossover cable). I ran the network wizard and set my main computer to "Other computer connect to the internet through this one" and the secondary, family computer is set to "Connect to the internet through another computer" option. I ran the wizard exactly how it should be, and it says it completed successfully. Windows firewall is off on both computers.

 

Problem = no internet on secondary computer.

 

Can someone walk me through the steps or tell me how to do this? The wizard within Windows, well, sucks.

I just went through the same process with my two computers. It is easy if you are running WinXP (Pro is preferable) on both rigs.

 

I don't know if you can do this with XP Home, but I created a "Network Bridge" on the Host computer. This links both computers together as one. I can share everything on both computers. Here is a link for your info:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...e.mspx?mfr=true

 

Once you have read this page, click on the link at the botom of the page "Bridge Connections". This is step by step instructions of how it is done.

 

The "Host" computer must have two LAN cards; one to connect to the Internet and one to connect to the other computer using a cross-over cable. The cross-over cable is a must.

 

I had never worked with networks prior to this attempt, so it took me some time to study. I got it done using the info that I provided for you.

 

Good luck!

[wevsspot]

Linux is a great option for running a spare pc as a server/router. And it is a fairly secure way to do so.

 

Personally I prefer working in Windows. But I've played around on a setup were a Linux based spare PC was being used as a server/router and it really was pretty slick.