[Grundy]

I just got a new laptop (Windows Vista 64), and I was hoping to connect to the internet wirelessly through a shared connection on my desktop (also Vista 64). So I did just that: I created a wireless adhoc connection on my desktop and shared my internet connection. Well, browsing the internet from the laptop works fine, but nothing else does. I can't connect to IRC (mIRC keeps giving a "permission denied" error when trying to connect to any server) and I can't connect to FTP (ALFTP just says "connecting" for eternity).

I already disabled the Windows Firewall on both computers, but that had no effect. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that Vista has some kind of security function blocking a bunch of ports coming through ICS. Is that the case? And if so, how do I disable it? If not, what else could be causing this problem?

Edit: I've done a little more poking around. For some reason it appears all the communication between the two computers is one way. My laptop can ping my desktop, it can see it on the network, it can read files from it, and it can browse the web (with the exception of IRC and FTP as noted earlier). But my desktop doesn't even seem to know that my laptop exists. Won't even ping it. I'm new to the world of wireless networking so I have no idea what's going on. Anybody have any ideas?

[TerryNet]

In the Network and Sharing Center on the laptop is the network designated as 'Private'? It should be. Is any non-Windows firewall configured to allow the desired access?

I don't know if this is your issue, but as far as I know there is no way to do port forwarding with ICS.

[JohnWill]

Originally Posted by TerryNet

I don't know if this is your issue, but as far as I know there is no way to do port forwarding with ICS.

Not strictly true, though you may need an assist.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/...figuration.htm

[Grundy]

Well I seem to have solved the problem.

Originally Posted by TerryNet

In the Network and Sharing Center on the laptop is the network designated as 'Private'? It should be. Is any non-Windows firewall configured to allow the desired access?

Yes it was set to private. I have no non-Windows firewall. However, I did all this on the very first time I ever booted up the laptop. I never even thought to reboot (yeah I know, first thing you should try, don't shoot me) but when I started my laptop up again in the morning a "Windows Live OneCare" screen came up. I'd never heard of it before, despite having Vista on my desktop; must be something that comes with Vista Ultimate. But apparently it is a lot like the Windows Firewall, although it is a separate program. When I launched mIRC this time and tried to connect, a OneCare screen came up asking if I wanted to unblock it. Naturally I said yes. Why it didn't do this on the first bootup I don't know.

Originally Posted by TerryNet

I don't know if this is your issue, but as far as I know there is no way to do port forwarding with ICS.

Actually, there is. Last night when I was stumbling around on my desktop trying to figure out what was wrong, I found some kind of port forwarding settings in ICS (right click on shared connection, properties, go to sharing tab, click settings, voila). I naturally added an exception for IRC and FTP.

So one or both of these things ended up fixing it.

Thanks for your responses guys!

[TerryNet]

Guess I really had a good handle on that one.

Glad you got it working, and thanks for sharing the information/solutions with us.