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DAve Jenkins
02-10-2005, 02:12 AM
I feel like the little kid peeking into the dining room where all the adults are sitting around having their coffee - hoping he'll get invited in, but not sure he'll understand anything that's being said. Nevertheless, here goes:

I have an Earthlink satellite internet connection on an XP systems, and am running ICS on that system for 2 other computers that are networked to the ICS computer with ethernet. It all works fine, except:

If I try to configure the TCP/IP for the satellite connection to use DHCP, after Earthlink's WebSetup program runs (and right before it wants to do a restart), I find that the "Obtain IP Address Automatically" option has been replaced in the connection settings, and a set of static IP's has been substituted. I've done an ipconfig /release /renew, and I know the modem can be given a new IP address.

If I stop the system just prior to the restart, I can re-set the dynamic IP and then do the restart. However, when I do that, after the system has restarted Windows always shows the connection icon in the system tray with a little gizmo on it that says the connection is not "reliable or unavailable or is unreachable or unconnected" or words to that effect. The Earthlink software says, "Hey - you need to run WebSetup becuase the "PC settings don't match the network settings"" (what does that mean?).

It appears to me that once the dynamic IP address has been assigned, some important link between XP and the device no longer works. That's as clear as I can make it, because I really don't understand all of this...

Earthlink says this is because I'm using ICS, but I've turned sharing off on that connection, run the whole drill, and it still doesn't work.

I've spent hours with Earthlink support, to no avail. Each call or chat gives me one more thing to try, and that's about it - it's obvious that they don't know what the problem is.

Can any of you give me some new things to try, or perhaps tell me what I might be doing wrong? Or am I trying to do something that's inherently impossible?

Thanks...

Greenstead
02-10-2005, 11:40 PM
I didn't really understand what your problem is or the description of what you are seeing. You didn't say how you connect the 2 other PCs connect to the ICS PC.

The problem: Your other PCs don't get internet access ? Or you're just uncomfortable with the configuration settings?

The way I understand Earthlink works. The PC network connection to the satellite modem is configured by Earthlink (it can be static or DHCP depending on what you agreed with them). You install ICS on the modem connection. All you other network connection should be set to use DHCP. ICS will give 192.168.0.1 to the ICS PC connection to the other PCs.

DAve Jenkins
02-11-2005, 12:23 AM
The 2 connected PC's are connected via Ethernet. Everybody's getting Internet access just fine, when the Satellite Connection is set up with static IP addresses. When I attempt to use dynamic addresses, I lose contact with the Internet, and the Earthlink software tells me to run its setup program.

When I run the setup program (after changing the connection options to dynamic IP address), the setup runs fine, but just before it prompts me to restart the system, it changes the connection settings back to static IPs, and populates the addresses with the ones that were there before I changed the option to dynamic IP. After the restart, I'm back to where I was, exactly, before I attempted to change the addressing option.

I can get a dynamic address all right: I change the TCP/IP option, and then run ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew, and sure enough a new ip address gets assigned. However, if I then run the Earthlink setup software ("WebSetup"), I'm reverted to static IPs.

I've found the static IP, BTW, in a few registry entries, but I have no idea what their significance is there.

The last thing Earthlink had me try was to connect the satellite modem directly to the host pc (it had been connected via a USB hub). (Didn't work. Didn't think it would.)

Does that make things clearer? Earthlink Technical Support has now turned this over to their "Engineers", but I haven't heard anything from them yet.

Greenstead
02-12-2005, 12:22 AM
I don't see a problem. You earthlink account seems to use a static IP, which is proven by the fact it works. So I don't see why you are trying to make it dynamic.