ICS driving me crazy!

[kav]

I cannot get ICS (Cable modem) to work with my desktop host and laptop client. Worked fine under Win98se. Went to XP Pro on both desk and laptop. Tried with Laplink USB connection (whihch workd fine otherwise) and with Microsoft USB network adapter and its Broadband Network Utility softare (which works fine otherwise.) Ran XP network setup on both. Desktop connects to internet fine. Laptop taskbar shows "Internet Cable Moden on desktop connected" message on taskbar. Can ping each computer from the other. Network connections show everything set up correctly. Laptop will not get internet. Have pored over every Microsoft document on ICS. They end up with "winsock problem" as possibility; but brand new XP installations. No other winsocks.

Can anybody help me. i don't want to buy a router just for this.

thanks

[etlstes]

Hi -
I'm no expert but had a similar problem with a different setup, in that the clients seemed to indicate everything was fine, and the host connected to the internet ok, but the clients just wouldn't connect. In the end it turned out to be some mixture of problems between ICS and Firewall software.

If you have firewall software, especially Zone Alarm, try briefly uninstalling it (you'll need to do it properly, ie uncheck options such as load on start up etc) and accessing the internet from the clients without it.

Don't know if that's any help - good luck otherwise.

Steve

[kav]

I swear I tried this before, but in response to your post, I again tried shutting down ZoneAlarm on host, and it worked! I hope this maintains. Now, do you know what the relative dis/advantages of MS IC firewall and ZoneAlarm

Thanks.

[etlstes]

I have left XP Pro firewall up and not re-installed ZA Pro because I was so pleased to get a working system. I'd like to get ZA working again because I feel comfortable with it, but I won't do this until I understand why it seems to make the network unstable.

XP firewall seems to work perfectly well, but is more invisible than ZA which you get lots of messages from - this can be a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

But the main difference between the two is that XP will not monitor outgoing internet traffic - so eg if you have ad spying software or Trojan viruses on your system, it will not attempt to stop or even let you know about these events. But if you have good up to date virus software you shouldn't have a problem with new trojans, and ad spying stuff you can deal with with freeware or shareware if it seems necessary.

Regards, Steve.

[yankee1]

kav: you can add the ip of the local comp to your trusted zone in ZA and lower the security level for that zone.

etlstes: there is an option in ZA where you can disable all those annoying little popups every time something happens, if thats what ur referring to.

[etlstes]

Hi Yankee1 -
Actually I fid the popups quite comforting - but thanks for the tip. What happened - don't know if you can offer any advice on this - is that with ZA installed I could connect and my clients had access, but after a while, and for no reason I could trace, I lost contact. When I looked in ipconfig/all, I found that I had a double entry for my internet connection which isn't there when I originally connect, as shown below:

PPP adapter Alcatel Speedtouch Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
PPP adapter Alcatel Speedtouch Connection:

PPP adapter Alcatel Speedtouch Connection
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 217.45.36.52
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 217.45.36.52


One's obviously right and one's wrong, but I couldn't work out why it was happening. Don't know why it should be down to ZA either, but the fact is that when it's loaded this happens, when it's not, it doesn't.


Until I figure that out I can't have ZA as my firewall - but I'm not as happy with this new fangled XP thing, although it does seem to be quietly and stably getting on with it....

Regards, Steve.