Internet Connection Sharing without ICS

[jeffrla]

Is it possible to setup internet connection sharing for a dial-up connection without using the ICS option in Windows 98SE?

 

[p5mmx10g]

yeah, but the ics are the most eastest way to set up internet sharing, other than that , you can try wingate, winproxy, get a router, etc..

 

[Toddles18]

If you want to try a software solution I would recommend AnalogX Poxy, pretty straight forward and easy to set up and best of all, It's freeware, while wingate and and winproxy are shareware.

Proxy download website

 

[jeffrla]

What I wanted to know is how I would go about setting it up without ICS. I have an office that has a peer-to-peer network of 11 machines on a single dial-up connection using ICS. I was thinking about setting up a 2nd "host" machine so that half the machines would access the internet through 1 host and the other half through the other host. I want them to still be on the same hub and able to share files and printers. how can I best accomplish this if possible.

 

[Toddles18]

I don't know that that is possible with the ICS program included with windows. Maybe somebody else knows of a way for that to work but I don't, you could do that with the analogX proxy though, you would just have half of your machines point to the IP address of one of the computers that access the internet, and the other half to your other server's IP address.

 

[jeffrla]

Thanks Toddles18,

What I was wondering is with only 11 mahinces perhaps using static IPs' would be the way to go. I am newly A+ certified, but we did not go too indepth about the various tabs on the TCP/IP properties.(WINS Resolution, DNS Configuration, Gateway). I have a somewhat basic idea of what each of these tabsis doing, but I think I only know enough to get myself into trouble. Normally, I only use the ICS option in Win 98 or 2000. This problem just kinda intrigued me and got me to thinking about how I might set everything up manually(11 machines in all).

 

[Toddles18]

I should have mentioned this would only work if you were using static IP address's. Another thing you should consider is the price performace ratio for 2 dial up connections vs 1 cable modem or dsl line connection. Sharing the internet to the other computers could be done the same as with your dial up such as a proxy program, or you could use a dsl/cable modem router. I know my girlfriend only pays $25 a month for the midgrade cable modem which is 768 Kb down and 128 up I believe, compared at what aol charges for just dial up it would be crazy not to use a cable modem.

 

[jeffrla]

I have tried to convince this office to see if DSL or cable is available, however they are in somewhat of a backwards part of the country. They are setup for a dialup and it has worked okay til now for them. Heck, trying to get them to setup a LAN was like pulling teeth. Some of them are actually "anti-computer" and are only using their computer because they are forced to. They can comprehend the idea of a dial-up, but cannot comprehend a cable or DSL line. They are willing to pay for a 2nd dial-up line though. That's why I was trying to learn how to setup a 2 host system. If you were to use static IPs', how would you tell each machine where to go to access the internet, and also how would you setup the host machines manually?

 

[Toddles18]

Assuming you're using the Analog X proxy you would run the proxy program on the computers that connect to the internet, I suggest creating a shortcut for the program and placing it in the startup folder so it will startup automatically when the computer starts up. As for the host's you would open Internet explorer, tools, internet options, connections, lan settings, then select the proxy server, click advanced, and type in the server computers IP address and ports, the ports for each service are listed in the readme included with the program.

 

[jeffrla]

When you refer to "Analog X", is that a 3rd party piece of software or is a part of Win98? Whe you refer to the "readme" file, is that to a part of a 3rd party? I guess I probably sound like a total idiot on this area. Could you please explain step-by-step what I need to do on the "Host" machines, and also step-by-step on the "Client" machines?

Thank you so much for your patience and assistance.


Jeff Averhoff

 

[Toddles18]

Yes, Analog X is a third party freeware software utility, and the readme is included in the download. okay, as for setting up the computers first of all your going to need to make sure all the computers have static IP address, then norm for small office's is to use 192.168.X.X as these are reserved address just for small lans and will never appear on the internet.

To setup the servers(computers that connect to the internet):
Download and install Analog X proxy by following the link provided in my first post. I suggest then creating a shortcut and putting that in the startup folder so it starts automatically when the computer starts. That's all for the servers.

To setup the clients:
Open internet explorer on theses machines, click tools, internet options, connections, make sure never dial a connection is checked, then click on LAN settings, check use proxy server and then click advanced, now you type in the the servers ip address and the port for each associated service, so say one of your servers ip address's was 168.192.0.1, then you would use that address for all of the services, and then for http and secure you would use port 6588, for ftp you would use port 21, and for socks you would use 1080. Program half of you computers in this manner to point to one server and then program the other half in the same way only substitute the ip address for your second server. There are more detailed instructions in the readme included with the program. Let me know how this works.