Internet Connection Sharing

We have a cable internet connection which runs on Win 2000 prof through an ethernet card. Its ip is 172.16.1.11. And there is another NIC in the same system which is used for LAN having three win 2000 prof boxes. Our LAN is in class c network. Now my problem is how do I access internet from my LAN. What are the setting reqiured.

Please help me.

Some of your statements are a little confusing.

First of all, you have a class B network (192.168.x.x) is a class C network. This is not a problem, however, both are private addresses.

What do you have your subnet set for? What do you mean you have a NIC that is used for 3 W2K machine?

I assume you have a NIC in each of your 3 workstations. If you have a cable connection, you should have a cable modem that one of your machines is hooked to. This is your connection to the internet. You will probably want to pick up a DSL/Cable router by: Linksys, D-Link, etc. This allows all your machines to access the internet.

When you got your cable connect, did a technician come out to set it up, or did you do it yourself. I assume that if the tech, came out, he got at least one machine up and running. If your machines are set to 172.16.x.x, I doubt the Tech would have set this up as it is not a public address.

Tom.

Thank You tfs for your reply to my query.

Im sorry my question was quite confusing.
So Now I will try to put it again.

There are 4 systems at my workplace. 3 are Windows 2000 prof (the names i have given to the machines are mach1, mach2, and mach3) and 1 is windows 98(mach4). Mach1 has two ethernet cards, one is connected to the internet through cable modem. This has a ip address of 172.16.1.70 and subnet of 255.255.252.0. The other ethernet card is configured to 192.168.0.1 so the rest of the systems (Mach2, mach3 and mach4) form a LAN. NOw how do i access Internet from LAN [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Not sure why you are using the 255.255.252.0. Is this number given to you by your Cable company? Not sure why they would give you a private address. I assume that the W2K machine is already accessing the Internet and that there is a cable directly from the NIC card to the Cable Modem.

I assume that one of the 3 machines has a NIC card (the 192.168.0.1). The other 2 machines don't have a NIC.

Here is the situation I assume you are trying to achieve. You want to connect all the machines in the office to the internet. The easiest way to do this would be to get a DSL router from your neighborhood computer store. I happen to like Linksys. I would get the the Firewall router for about $80, as it would give you a hardware firewall for very cheap (you need a router anyway and you get both for about the same price).

If, as we talked about above, your 172.x.x.x number was given to you by the cable company, this would be your WAN public address that you give to the router. Set all your other machine (the W2k, mach1, mach2 and mach3) to a 192.168.0.x network. Don't use 192.168.0.1, as it is common practice to use the 192.168.x.1 number for routers and firewalls (I believe Linksys sets their routers to 192.168.0.1 and you would have a conflict). Set them to 192.168.0.(10,11,12,13) for example.

You can also use DHCP and let the router do it for you. For a home system, I prefer to set the IP addresses myself so I always know what each machine is set to.

Linksys gives you a quickstart page that is pretty easy to follow.

You could also use one of the other manufacturers routers (D-link for example) that work just as well (not pushing Linksys).

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Tom.

From what I understand, all machines do have network cards in them, and if this is the case and your on a really tight budget then you can use the Windows machine with the two network cards as a router for your lan.

Of course, what TFS is proposing is a much safer approach as you will have a dedicated firewall box protecting all your LAN machines.

So, to get things working quickly, you can simply goto the Windows 2000 machine that is connected to the Internet, right click on 'my network places' and goto properties.

You should be able to see the two network cards icons. All you need to do is enable the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)on the network card that connects to the cable modem and your done. Now I don't remember exactly where the ICS is configured, but if you goto the apropriate network card's properties and browse through it, you should be able to locate it.

Once ICS is enabled, Win2k will change the IP address of your 'private' network card (thats the nic which connects to your internal lan) to 192.168.0.1, so you need to make sure no other machine is using that IP address.

That's pretty much is. A quick and easy solution, but one I wouldn't suggest for an office environment, especially if you have any data you wouldn't want other people to access.

In the long run, tfs's solution is best and more secure. There are ofcourse 'personal firewalls' which you can install on the windows ICS machine, but I wouldn't suggest it. Go for a hardware based firewall which will be much more efficient and effective.

Let us know what you end up doing!

Cheers,

Thank you once again tfs for your reply.

But I got the solution given by admin was easy to setup. And alos my internal networks hosts don't have very critcal data and hence for now I don't feel the necessity for the firewall. But anyhopw thank you very much. Maybe someday I will go for the type of connection you mentioned.

Also thank you Admin for a easier solution.