Wireless Networking How to share wired Internet connection in hotel using two wireless PCs

Can you help me network a single wired Internet connection at my hotel
with my
two wireless computers?

The hotel charges $30/day for the wired Internet connection, which is
OK. However, they charge for each laptop which I find to be highway
robbery especially since they only supply wired Internet so there's no
way to share between rooms.

Luckily, both Windows XP computers are wireless.

Is there any way to use the wireless part of the WinXP computers to
SHARE the initial connection?

Is this too basic a question?

Here is what I have done so far:
 a) Shut down both computers and hook the wired ethernet to the
computer whose MAC address (I suspect) was registered when I bought the
Internet service from the web page.
 b) Boot both WinXP laptops and check the ip address (ipconfig /all)
which shows the
computer with the wired connection has an IP address of:
     IP Address. . . . . . . . . ... . . : 192.168.2.6
     Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.248.0
 c) The other computer, not on the network, had no IP address (can that
happen?)
     Media State = Media disconnected.

The question is how to use the second computer to connect to the first
computer via the built-in wireless card? Can that be done? How?

Cindy

Cindy,

Here's the information on how to connect two computers and share Internet
connection wirelessly without additional equipment:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_02april08.mspx

The info seems to be up to date.
--
Svyatoslav Pidgorny, MS MVP - Security, MCSE
-= F1 is the key =-

S. Pidgorny <MVP> wrote:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_02april08.mspx

Hi S. Pidgorny,

Oh my. You do have a great potential answer here! You are just what the
doctor ordered. A great many people would benefit from this discussion
as it applies even to home or office use to have one wired Internet
connection work with two computers in the same room (one at a time).

Reading your suggested web page about building an ad hoc 802.11b
wireless network using the graphical user interface in Windows XP was
very interesting:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_02april08.mspx

According to your document, the main steps to follow are:
1. Set the 1st PC as an ad-hoc (pc-to-pc) wireless connection
2. Ensure the wireless card is working properly in the second PC
3. Enable Internet Connection Sharing on the first PC

More specifically, it seems, first, on PC1, we:
* Ensure PC1 is hooked to the Internet via the Ethernet wire
* Start > Settings > Network Connections
* Rightclick on the wireless network icon
* View Available Wireless Networks > Change Advanced Settings
* Select the "Wireless Networks" tab
* Hit the "Advanced" button
* Select "Computer to computer (ad hoc) networks only"
* And clear the "Automatically connect to non-preferred networks" box

Ooops. I hit the return button too soon. Here for all to benefit, are
the steps as I understand them (please fix where I make mistakes) to
create and share an ad-hoc computer-to-computer wireless network
without need for a wireless router or wired hub.

A) To set up the HOST computer (the one with the wired connection):
* Ensure the host PC1 is hooked to the Internet via the Ethernet wire
* On WinXP PC1, press Start > Settings > Network Connections
* Then rightclick on the wireless network icon and select
* View Available Wireless Networks > Change Advanced Settings
* Select the "Wireless Networks" tab
* Hit the "Advanced" button
* Select "Computer to computer (ad hoc) networks only"
* And clear the "Automatically connect to non-preferred networks" box
* Again select the "Wireless Networks" tab
* Under "Preferred Networks", hit the "Add" button
* Enter in a "Network Name (SSID)" of "Hotel"
* Notice the grayed-out checked box indicating "This is a
computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network; wireless access points are not
used"
* For now, leave the "Network Authentication" as "Open"
* Likewise, leave the "Data encryption" as "Disabled" for now
* OK your way out of these forms

B) To set up the CLIENT computer (the one that will be wireless):
* On WinXP PC2, press Start > Settings > Network Connections
* Then rightclick on the wireless network icon and select
* View Available Wireless Networks
* You should see "Hotel" as an "Unsecured computer-to-computer network"
* Select "Hotel", press the "Connect", & "Connect Anyway" buttons
* You'll see the message "Acquiring network address"
* Soon you should see the message "Connected"

C) To Share the Internet connection:
* Go back to the host WinXP computer, PC1
* Make a note of the wired connection's name (e.g., Local Area
Connection)
* Press Start > Settings > Control Panel
* Switch to classic view > Network Connections.
* Rightclick the connection to be shared
* Under Network Tasks, click "Change advanced settings"
* Select the "Advanced" tab
* Select the "Allow other network users to connect through this
computer's Internet connection" check box.
* Disable the setting to "Allow other network users control or disable
the shared Internet connection"
* Optionally turn on the Windows Firewall
* In the "Home networking connection", select a private network
connection of "Local Area Connection" (i.e., the connection to the
wired network)
* OK your way out of the forms

If the planets align, after you've completed this ICS configuratoin,
the Network Connection window on the host PC1 should display the
original wired Ethernet connection and display the status as Shared as
well as Enabled.

Likewise, the Network Connection window on the client PC2 should
display the connection on the host as an Internet Gateway. The client
PC2 should now receive a private class, non-routable IP address in the
192.168.0.* address range via DHCP from the host computer and should
have full Internet connectivity. Multiple client PCs can be connected
in this manner.

Bear in mind, all this is theoretical. I tried it, but it didn't work
(so I'm debugging as we speak). I'll let you know what I find out.

Note: For some inexplicable reason, I lost my wired connection when I
ran the steps above but I got it back by turning off "Enable IEEE
802.1x authentication for this network" in the "Local Area Connection"
"Authentication" tab on the host PC1; and then by selecting in the
"Advanced" tab in the "Internet Connections Sharing" section to "Allow
other network users to connect through this computer's Internet
connection".

But, so many settings happened, that I'm not sure all the steps above
were exact as I still don't have PC2 connected to PC1 wirelessly
without a router.

Cindy

I now have PC1 connected again but PC2 says its connected to the
"Hotel" network but it doesn't work. I need to debug.

Maybe I'll just change the MAC address so that both PCs are the same
MAC address.

That would, of course, only work with the ethernet cable connected to
one at a time (which is OK ... just not as convenient as being wireless
in the hotel room).

I found a freeware MAC address changer here:
 http://www.gorlani.com/downloads/dlchk.asp?fname=macmakeup.zip

Cindy