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Internet Connection Sharing

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by hereinoz 1 view

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Hi all,

I wonder if anyone has info on this one. Machine is a P266 on an ATX board running Windows 98SE and 64MB RAM.

I clean installed it after a format, then set up Internet Connection Sharing, which was working fine as I continued to add software. This morning I installed Spybot, Zone Alarm, and MSN Messenger in that order, and now the ICS status monitor is telling me that it is no longer working - It reports "No computer is sharing this connection" where normally it is at least "1 computer is sharing this connection" when there are no others on the network, and goes to 2 when another is connected.

I tend to feel that it is Messenger but I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience with ICS on Win98 and if there is anything you can offer to assist.

Bear in mind that it was working OK, so it is not a problem with IP addresses or configuration.

It has happened since I installed those 3 applications. If anyone can assist I would really appreciate it.

Cheers,

Alan

6 replies

by thechas

The most likely source of the problem is actually Zone Alarm.

You need to go into Zone Alarm settings and select a range of IP addresses to allow access to the PC. Just check the assigned IP addresses of the PCs that you wish to allow to access the internet.

Otherwise, Zone Alarm blocks the local PCs from accessing anything through the PC with ICS.

Chas

by hereinoz

It's not Zone Alarm, Chas - even happens with Zone Alarm turned off. Also' it is not that the second machine cannot access the Internet via the gateway machine, it is just that ICS stops working on the gateway machine, even though it is enabled, it doesn't actually function.

Sounds wierd I know but I can access both machines across the network, and ICS appears to be enabled, but when you check how many computers are connected, the answer is None, when it should be 2. Even with no other machine connected, you should still get 1 computer reported as connected (the gateway machine), but in this case - None.

I am baffled I must confess.

Alan

by mark

I still think it's Zone Alarm. Even when you turn it off, the settings it makes stay put. You have to tell Zone Alarm to open everything before turning it off and even then I don't trust it. If things work though, I would not worry about the misreport. Zone Alarm may be blocking pings that ICS uses to report with. Can you ICMP ping between the PCs?

by hereinoz

You hit it Mark. Stupid me was believing the "No computers connected" report, and for some reason that still eludes me, I didn't actually check whether it still worked. Some people!!

After I re-installed - again, I found it was actually MSN Messenger 6.1 that caused the ICS to report that it wasn't working - go figure - but the connection is still functioning despite its insistance that it is not!!

So, Zone Alarm was an innocent bystander in all of this. I know that Zone Alarm (not Pro) is not supposed to support ICS, but I found that if you set the Internet Zone security to Medium, which closes the ports without stealthing them, it will work OK. Should be good enough for a dial up connection, which this is.

Thanks for you help on this one.

Alan

by hereinoz

I can ping the other machine - the one behind the gateway, but get no internet access, which I did have before installing the last three bits of software. It is perhaps that Zone Alarm is grabbing something in the TCP/IP stack that is disabling the ICS.

I have formatted the drive and will load Zone Alarm on first and see what it does. If the ICS still works I will have a go at Messenger, and if it still works, I will put Spybot on and see what goes. If it still works after that, I will be as baffled as I am now!!

I will let you know. If it is Zone Alarm, Chas, please re-post something and I will allocate the points.

Alan

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