How to setup Windows ICS

How to Setup Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

Windows 2000 supports both Network Address Translation (NAT) and Internet Confection Shading (ICS) al1ow workgroup users to access to the Internet.. Windows 2000/XP Professional support only ICS. Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) enables a Windows (Win98SE, Win2K and XP) computer to share its Internet connection with computers on local area networks. The computer connecting directly to the Internet and shares its connection with the rest of the computers on the network called the ICS host. In addition, the ICS host provides DHCP to ICS clients. Client computers are protected because they cannot be seen from outside the network. Only the computer running ICS is seen from the public side.

We assume you have all computers physically connected, and the ICS host have two network connections: one (for example Internet in our case) for the Internet such as a dial-up (PPP or ISDN), cable modem, DSL, or other broadband Ethernet connection, and another one (LAN) , for the local area network.

Things you should know about ICS

1. When you enable Internet Connection Sharing, IP address of the Interne NIC in the ICS server is always 192.168.0.1. All clients will be assigned other IP addresses in the 192.168.0.x range.
2. You should not enable ICS on the computer as a domain controller, DHCP server, or DNS server.
3. To enable ICS, you must be logged on as a member of the Administrators
4. You may experience some problems if you use NetMeeting and VPN in your ICS network.
5. You should have two NICs.

Enabling Host ICS - WinXP

To configure a WinXP ICS host, go to Start>Control Panel>Network Connation. Highline the Internet which connecting to a cable modem in our case. Under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection. On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.

Configuring ICS Client

To setup a win9x (in our case) as ICS client to access the internet, you need to do two things. network settings and internet option settings.

1. Network settings must be set Obtain IP Address Automatically - to do this, go to Network>Properties of TCP/IP.
2. The Internet browser should se set never dial a connection and no proxy server - go to Internet Options>Connection and LAN settings.
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