[SOLVED] ICS without a GUI

[ElWray]

Hi guys,
Got a few more questions
1st: is internet connection sharing possible if the other PC runs on windows?
2nd: how do I do it? (I had to configure my network card with the terminal and removed the networking managers that were installed)

Thanx,
ElWray

[Ole Juul]

Re: ICS without a GUI

TCP/IP is OS independent. IOW, it doesn't matter what the computers are running. The normal configuration for sharing is to plug a switch (essentially what they used to call a hub) into your internet source and plug whatever computers you like into that. Confused? Sorry, I was just trying to be accurate.

It's really quite simple. Plug a router into you internet connection and plug the computers into that. Done. You see, most common routers have a 4 port switch built right in. That means you can plug 4 computers into it and it doesn't matter what OS they're running.

You can also run one computer as a gateway. That computer will be plugged into your internet connection and then a second computer is plugged into that. The gateway computer will then have to have 2 network cards. It just makes it complicated to do it that way so almost always people just get a $30 router and be done with it. A router also has the advantage of giving you a built in firewall too.

[ElWray]

Re: ICS without a GUI

Ah, yes...I remember the hubs.

Routers won't work here. When I changed my ISP the guys that came here to wire all the stuff together tried to configure my router and failed so I sold it eventually. Everybody complains about the fact that routers don't work with the connection from my ISP (some work but I won't try out every model I can find).
So the router is definitely not a choice.

I got 2 network cards though, and using my computer as a gateway seems like the only option right now. So how do I do it?

[Ole Juul]

Re: ICS without a GUI

OK. I haven't done this but since I'm still up (and nobody else is here) I'll tell you what I would do. I recently connected a DOS machine to my Linux machine via the serial port because there were no NICs possible and the only thing I needed to do on the Linux box was add port forwarding. I guess that's all that's needed here as well. It is extremely simple.

The file /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward normally has a 0 in it. Change that to 1.
To make that permanent, go to the file /etc/sysctl.conf and find the line which says
net.ipv4.ip_forward = and change the 0 to a 1 there. Don't forget to restart the network:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

I'm guessing that will do it. Hopefully DHCP will take care of the rest, if not, we'll get you sorted out soon, or you can Google "port forwarding". I'm off to bed.

[Detonate]

Re: ICS without a GUI

Some ISP's have some kind of block on their connection that only allows a single user. I have run into this problem with Comcast. Unless you tell them you that you wish to run a network, and pay extra for the privilege, it will only allow one computer to be connected at time. That's the reason your router would not work. My concern here is, that even if you hook the two computers together, you still may not be able to get an internet connection. Basically you are turning the one computer into a router, and if a router won't work, then you still have the same problem.

[ElWray]

Re: ICS without a GUI

Well, the weird thing is that some routers do work.

[ElWray]

Re: ICS without a GUI

Problem solved I guess.
Called my ISP and asked to get a split on my connection with a second IP address. So now I got both computers connected on the same cable via a switch.

@Ole Juul: thanks for reminding me about the switch :P

Thank you all for your support,
ElWray

[Detonate]

Re: [SOLVED] ICS without a GUI

Please post the name of your ISP so that others might know what is causing their problem. I have already mentioned Comcast.

[ElWray]

Re: [SOLVED] ICS without a GUI

The ISP is called RDS; from Romania.