Internet Connection (no longer) Sharing

[zeszut]

I have three computers all running Windows 98 SE. They were purchased in December 1999 and arrived with network cards. A network was immediately set up among the three and it has been working fine (except the time that the three cards were fried by a lightning strike to the building three years ago – but that’s another story).

I also set them up as a host and two clients using Internet Connection Sharing. Additionally, all three have modems and have individual dial-up capabilities. When the host is connected to the net the two clients have the ability to access the web through the host rather than additional dial-ups.

This configuration was set up in December 1999 (I mention this because I cannot remember details of the set up procedure after these four years) and there has been no problem(s) of any kind since then.

Last Friday, everything was working fine. However, on Monday three problems arose that I suspect are related:

1) The clients cannot access the internet through the host yet all three can use their individual dial-up connections with no problems.

2) When the host connects to the internet through dial-up, it tries to connect to a Hotmail account through Microsoft Messenger but the following message occurs: "We could not sign you into MSN Messenger. It appears you are behind a firewall that does not allow direct connection to the Internet. We tried to sign you in through an HTTP proxy, but your Internet Explorer proxy settings are either missing or incorrect. To adjust your IE proxy settings, click the IE Tools menu, click Internet Options, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings."

3) When the host connects to the internet through dial-up, the program “Dimension 4” (a time synchronization program) generates the following message: “The request timed out. Ensure that your network is functioning properly and try again.”

The host was running ZoneAlarm but disabling it results in no change. It’s not running on the host currently.

I tried un-installing ICS on the host and re-installing it but that also results in no change.

No new software has been installed in a number of weeks.

I’ve searched the web and see that people have had problem #2 but the cause seemed to be a problem with Microsoft’s servers.

I assume that all these three problems are related.

Has anyone else had similar problems? Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Terry

PS> I've seen threads about setting up ICS to work but my problem seems to be that it has decided to stop working!

[RicheemxX]

putting the ICS aside do the other computers see the host in the netowork and vice versa? Sounds as though your having issues with your connection settings on your host. Check the netowrk card and settings on the host computer or even set-up one o fthe other comps as the host. Check your dial-up and connection properties to see where the problem might be. I'd also check for viruses and spyware there could be some issue here.

The fact that the other two computers can connect via dial-up on there own doesn't have anything to do with your network as the modems have nothing to do with ICS.

[zeszut]

Thanks.

Yes, all machines see each other on the network. I ran Norton yesterday and found no viruses. I'll run Ad-Aware later today (while I'm at lunch).

In the meantime, this is what I've done lately (on the host machine) per suggestions from other forums:

1) Un-installed Zone Alarm, Microsoft Messenger and Dimention 4.
2) Un-installed ICS.
3) Un-installed by dial-up connection.

4) Re-installed my dial-up connection.
5) Re-installed ICS.

I then dialed out on the host (and connected) but did not open ANY internet-related software (ie, Explorer, Outlook, etc).

I tried to get email on a client machine. But nothing happens. Nothing happens in the browser either.

The "internet" icon in the host machine's tray showed activity both to and from the net. In fact, the status of the icon showed bytes being received and sent (I assume by the client, no?).

Additionally, the ICS icon in the host's tray showed "3 machines are sharing the internet connection".

This HAS to be the host's problem but I don't know where else to look.

[zeszut]

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[zeszut]

A suggestion from someone on another forum:

On the Clients, Open Control Panel - Network and look for the TCP/IP binding in the list that is bound to the network card (not the one bound to the dial up adapter). In there you can manually configure DNS and the IP address for the card. Set the Primary DNS Server to 192.168.0.1. Your Dial-up adapter when active should get a DNS server allocated to it by your ISP for when the Client dials instead of the Host.

[Tried using the QUOTE function but I can't seem to get it, or the emoticoms for that matter, to work.]

This worked for a while but later in the day the same old problem reappeared.

Then I had a brainstorm (it hurts but sometimes it's helpful): Since the client's IP address was manually configured on it's network card, I decided to manually configured the host's IP address on it's network card.

Voila - everything works both on the host and on the client.

It seems to me that maybe the automatic IP network addressing failed the other week.

I did notice that there are a number of threads going on elsewhere about networks that are no longer working. I wonder if one of Microsoft's recent Windows's patches had something to do with these newtork problems.

I have one client working but have not set up the second client. I'll do that later today but don't forsee any problems.

The time synch program (Dimension 4) and Microsoft Messenger still exhibit the "firewall" problem ... but I don't care since they are not critical whereas the ICS is.

I'll look for other IM and time synch software and see if I can get them to work. Any suggestions or recommendations?

Thanks,

Terry