Getting Started

Installing the ICS

I am going to assume that you have a basic understanding of how to put together a LAN, or that you already have one set up. If you're not prepared, head on over to the FS Guide to Setting up a LAN, and then go check out the FS Guide to Windows Networking. Those two articles should get you up to speed. Head on back over here to find out about setting up and using Windows Internet Connection Sharing(ICS).

Setting up the LAN is the first step. Once you have the LAN up and running, with file and print sharing enabled and working (make sure that file and print sharing isn't bound to your internet connection device otherwise other people on your service might gain easy access to your computers). Before installing ICS, make sure to assign each of your computers a different IP in the 192.168.X.X range. This is required for the ICS clients to be able to communicate with the host correctly.

I would strongly suggest that you assign an IP in the range mentioned above for all your network machines. This will negate some possible difficulties you might run into while setting up the ICS. The ICS setup will change the internal IP address of your Host machine (the computer with Internet Access) to 192.168.0.1, and the changed IP has caused my network to fail after ICS installation.

As anyone with a little network savvy knows, when you make changes to a network, it sometimes can take a good long while before the rest of the network catches up and adjusts. Once you have your network up and running with new IPs for all the systems, it's time to get Windows ICS installed and working.

If you don't already have the ICS installed, then you need to install it from the Windows 98 SE CD before proceeding. Please note that this procedure ONLY has to be done on the gateway computer, AKA the "HOST" computer. This is the computer that has the Internet access device, your analog modem, cable modem, or network interface card(DSL). Configuration of the client machines (all your other computers) will occur after you install the ICS on the gateway machine. Once installed, the ICS will ask you for a floppy to create a "Client Configuration disk".

Setting up the Host

The computer that has the Internet access will become the "HOST" machine, and you'll need to install the Internet sharing here. Simply open Control Panel, then double-click the Add and Remove Programs icon, and click the Windows Setup Tab. Highlight Internet Tools, then click Details. Checkmark Internet Connection Sharing, click ok to close that window, and then click the Apply Button. If that item is already checked, cancel your way back to control panel and proceed to the next section. Otherwise, the system will ask for the Windows 98 SE CD, give it the disk, and point to X:\Win98 (Where X is your CD-ROM drive letter) and let the system copy the files it needs.