Should DHCP be enabled on ICS host (XP)?

[etlstes]

Hi -
I'm having trouble accessing the internet from clients on an ICS network. My ipconfig shows the host (XP machine) as "DHCP enabled: No" for both the USB ADSL Modem adapter and the Lan Adapter.

Is this correct? I thought the host was serving IP addresses using DHCP to the clients at least?

Regards, Steve

[Greenstead]

Its not referring to ICS - ICS is DHCP enabled.

It is the connector which is DHCP disabled I think.

Go to START -> Connnect to -> Show all connections. Right click on the offnding connection and find your way to TCP/IP properties, Advanced ' and select 'Obtain an IP address automatically' and ' Obtain DNS server auto...'

[etlstes]

Thanks Greenstead -
That was my last hope. I think all other settings are correct for both host and client. I posted a message before giving details, but had no success.

Do you have any other suggestions? The history is that the network and ICS previously all worked fine. I tried installing an IPX component in order to enable multiplayer gaming for one of my son's games (big mistake which I won't repeat), and everything (network, host and client internet access) stopped working. I've removed the IPX stuff from both host and client, and eventually got everything working again (network, file and printer sharing between pc's, host internet access etc) but neither client has any luck with either internet or client access.

The clients get as far as making the host connect to the internet when I open up IE (with autoconnect enabled) but no further. The client IE throws up a page not available message, with at the very end a note about DNS error.

Any ideas would be appreciated - I'm walking in circles otherwise...

Regards, Steve

[Greenstead]

OK - lets try and sort it out.

Let me get the situation straight (I'm not clear what works and what doesn't.)
You have an XP PC with USB to ADSL. How does it connect to the other PCs - with a hub?
You have two other (client) PCs - what version of windows on them - how do they connect to the network?

- Neither client PC can get internet access.
- What do you mean by clients do not get client access - do you mean they cannot see each other on the network and share files, or do you mean they cannot logon to each other.

One thing that will help (me) is to post the connection details. If XP go to command prompt and enter Ipconfig /all > file.txt You can then copy and paste the contents of file.txt here. If earlier versions of windows use winipcfg. Do that for each PC.

[etlstes]

Hi - thanks for your reply. I'll try and be more coherent in what follows:

This is the configuration:

The Host PC is XP, with USB (Alcatel Speedtouch) ADSL. The two clients run Windows 98 SE, and all pc's are connected via an ethernet hub

The host works perfectly well with full ADSL internet access. Email is also no problem.

I set up a simple network which works fine. Both clients and the host can read each other's files and share printers with no problems. This was done using the network wizard on the XP host. The network diskette was created and run on each of the clients.

However, neither of the clients (W98 machines) can access the internet or email (Outlook set up to access POP3 and SMTP servers).

(With regard to my last message, sorry, I made a typo error - 'neither client has any luck with either internet or client access' should read 'neither client has any luck with either internet or email access')

What happens when I open up a browser on either of the clients (IE in this case) is that the host, if disconnected, shows itself connecting - so the client gets contact with the host to this stage (I enabled autoconnect) - but then the browser comes up with an error saying the page wasn't accessible.

Here are the connection details (it's a bit long so I'll say thanks for any help you can give here in case you fall asleep before getting to the end...):

Host (XP) ipconfig/all:
Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : STEVE Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : NoEthernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-10-DC-76-6E-EF Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : PPP adapter Alcatel Speedtouch Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00 Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 213.123.123.20 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 213.123.123.20 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 213.120.62.102 213.120.62.103
Client 1 (w98 se) winipcfg/all
Windows 98 IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . : FIDDLESTICKS.mshome.net

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Node Type . . . . . . . . . : Mixed

NetBIOS Scope ID. . . . . . :

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . : No

NetBIOS Resolution Uses DNS : No



0 Ethernet adapter :



Description . . . . . . . . : Realtek 8139-series PCI NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . : 00-50-BF-25-4E-65

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Primary WINS Server . . . . :

Secondary WINS Server . . . :

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . : 10 29 02 17:41:31

Lease Expires . . . . . . . : 11 05 02 17:41:31


Client 2 (w98 se) winipcfg/all
Windows 98 IP Configuration



Host Name . . . . . . . . . : Gandalf.mshome.net

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Node Type . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast

NetBIOS Scope ID. . . . . . :

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . : No

NetBIOS Resolution Uses DNS : No



0 Ethernet adapter :



Description . . . . . . . . : Realtek 8139-series PCI NIC

Physical Address. . . . . . : 00-50-BF-25-4D-FF

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

IP Address. . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.84

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

Primary WINS Server . . . . :

Secondary WINS Server . . . :

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . : 10 29 02 22:31:29

Lease Expires . . . . . . . : 11 05 02 22:31:29


Thanks again -
Steve

[Greenstead]

Things do not look too bad on the 98 PCs. They correctly show a gateway of 192.168.0.1

What looks strange is that the host PC does not seem to show an IP address (should be 192.168.0.1 subnet 255.255.255.0). But that doesn't make sense if the PCs are sharing files.

Also on the host PC, IP routing enabled should be no.
Check there are no bridges in network connections - if any there just delete them.

Try disabling and then enabling the realtek NIC on the XP PC. If you highlight it in network connections you should see it get its IP address of 192.168.0.1 subnet 255.255.255.0.

If not I would remove ICS and run the network wizard again.

After that post ipconfig /all again.

[etlstes]

Right -
Well, some changes have been happening, but I'm not sure if this makes the situation worse or better!

First of all, suddenly last night the two clients became able to access internet and email. I had rebooted a couple of times, and re-enabled a previous firewall (zone alarm pro) which I had previously disabled in favour of the XP firewall. While getting the ipconfig/all settings from the two clients I tried to access the internet and to my surprise (horror?) they were both able to do so. (Horror because I had no idea what I had done that might have changed the situation.)

But this access seems to be intermittent - this morning the first time I switched on the pc's no access was available - when I re-booted the host again, they had access. It seems that the ipconfig settings on the host do not work the same way every time. The settings I sent you for the host last night Greenstead are not the same ones I usually have - I must admit I didn't look at them closely before sending them to you. This is the usual setup:
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : STEVE
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-10-DC-76-6E-EF Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . :
No IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

PPP adapter Alcatel Speedtouch Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 217.45.60.11
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 217.45.60.11
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :213.1.119.102 213.1.119.103

IP routing still seems to be enabled - is there a way to turn this off?

I haven't yet disabled or enabled the NIC. Do you still want me to do this?

I'm sorry - this seems to be turning into an intermittent fault - is there likely to be a good reason for the PC to boot up with different settings each time?

[Greenstead]

Ah, I should have asked you to check XP's firewall. It must be always disabled on all PCs when you want LAN communication to work. That is probably what made things start to work.

I also use Zone Alarm (the free version) and that is fine as long as you set the security correctly.

The IPCONFIG on the host looks good now. No need to disable and enable it (the reboot did the same thing). The settings should not change.

When you switch on PCs it can take a liitle time before they all see each other. Best not to switch them off. Use power management if they have it to power down discs and screen, at least use a blank screen saver.

[etlstes]

Ok, well thanks very much for your help. The network seems pretty stable now and the clients are accessing the internet pretty well. Two queries if you have time:

The documentation seemed pretty clear that the XP firewall box should be checked when setting up ICS - is this wrong, or is it just that it can sometimes cause problems?

What about this IP Routing that still seems to be enabled? Is that ok to leave as it is?

Many thanks again,

Steve

[Greenstead]

Yes there should be a firewall on the ICS connection. XP's should be OK on this connection, but never on the other NICs. But if ICS seems the problem then zonealarm is just as good I believe.

The routing enabled doesn't matter if you have not defined any routing tables. You can disable it somewhere in the NIC properties.

btw - I don't use ICS myself. In another thread someone is asking how you install ICS on the correct connection - i.e. the ADSL connection instead of the dial-up modem. Is there a guide or easy way to explain this? Maybe you can help.
The thread is here:
http://forums.practicallynetworked.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79