Win XP ICS - DHCP just quits working?

Have you tried reconfiguring ICS......start from scratch?

Have you had any virus, spyware or trojans?

Perhaps

laptop

message

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Bendit) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I would simply get a wired/wireless NAT router and let it be the gateway device and the DHCP server for the network and be done with it and forget about AD-Hoc anything with ICS Windows anything. You'll have less gray hairs that way. ;-)

It's just a lille advice.

Duane :)

Thank you for your advice. I am aware of the different hardware components I could purchase to make my situation better. I would like to stick with ICS and my USB radio though, as it is cost effective (when it works!) and reusable (you can just carry the usb thingy everywhere, it's really small and light). Plus, it is now personal, I must conquer that problem or I will lose sleep over it! :) Thanks again for any input!

New outcome: I had reinstalled all the netgear software and reconfigured 'internet connection sharing' under windows XP pro and all was good again. The desktop was giving an IP to the laptop, I could access the web from the laptop, life was good.

Then again, while surfing the web from the laptop, all stopped working again. I couldn't surf to anything anymore, URLs couldn't get resolved anymore, I couldn't even PING the host desktop (192.168.0.1)! A 'repair' on the network adapter would once again fail on 'acquiring network address'. The host computer was hosed again.

I am now forced to use hard coded IP addresses, and I am writing this message through a remote desktop connection from the laptop to the desktop (which I guess is way more secured in a way since I have to authenticate).

(note that the wireless service on that laptop runs fine all day long at work, without any drops at all)

So that is my story. I am mystified at the ability of my host computer to work for a while (ICS) and then stop and stay broken for what seems like no good reason at all.

Again, if you have any insights, I am all ears.

cheers!

Perhaps

laptop

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working

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Progress: ICS worked for a couple of days again. This time it had functionned properly without re-installing the netgear software. Beats me. I had placed a support call at netgear just for the heck of it. They have free 90 day support with a new product. Because both computers can ping each other if IP addresses are manually configured, they basically told me to go suck a lemon and call Microsoft (regarding ICS).

Probably fair enough - its hardly someone else's problem if MS's DHCP implementation is one lemon short of a G&T. The best solution is to buy a router or invest in cheap proxying s/w.

it's worth a try for you, but i find that xp is usually the issue.

check your firewall settings (if you use xp firewall) as that's where

the issue has been when i'm troubleshooting the office computers.

although after the first few weeks of resetting (yes, on more than one

laptop it took me resetting that several times on each) i no longer

have the issue, but when i do - it is someone's firewall.

Thank you for your input. Unfortunately, it is not the firewall, at least what I can see of the GUI.

Progress report:

I run ICS with a hard coded IP address (and gateway & DNS that points to my host with ICS) on my client (the laptop). I have been up and running without any problems. It seems like the DHCP feature of XP Pro with ICS enabled was the problem for me, it totally breaks my connection.

Cant recall what I did, but it was something to do with the XP SP2 Firewall. For sure I turned it off to try it, and think I did something with exceptions.

Hi

I have the same problem. My desktop has got ICS running on it. My

laptop was working just fine acquiring an IP address through DHCP.

Suddenly out of the blue it just stopped working.

I have two laptops at my home. Both same make and same wireless LAN

card (Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG). Now one of them is working perfectly

fine acquring IP address through DHCP but in the other laptop the DHCP

client has suddenly quit working. therefore i know the problem is not

with the host.

both the laptops run WinXP SP2 whereas the host is just WinXP. also i

did not install any new software on my laptop so i know the DHCP client

did not quit due to some s/w conflict.

Please help. Also if at least anyone can tell me how to manually

configure my laptop for ICS.

thanks

- Sid

My second laptop's DHCP also stopped working today just out of the

blue... no new software installed... nothing...

My first laptop was bought earlier and it stopped working around 10-15

days ago.. the other laptop was bought later and it stopped working

later.

Seems too wierd. Me totally confused.

You say you had something to do with firewalls.. Was it the host

machine firewall or the client firewall ?

On the host machine i have two Network cards. The first one connects me

to my ISP and its firewalled (it connects to the internet and is

shared). the second one is a wireless one and it is automatically

assigned 192.168.0.1 and it is not firewalled. My computer runs a soft

AP and the wirless lan card connects to the wireless network simulated

by the soft AP.

how is your network working right now?

- Sid

Well, the usual screwup is that your laptop(s) are associating with the neighbors access point instead of your own. It's sometimes no obvious which access point XP is trying to connect. Right click on the wireless icon in the system tray and force a connection to your own access point. If that works, set your access point (SSID) to the "preferred" connection.

If you wanna have some fun, download and install the free DHCP query tool from:

of list). You don't have to have a connection or IP address to use it. It will find a suitable DHCP server and query it using broadcasts. My guess(tm) is that you'll find you're not querying your own DHCP server, but are connected to the neighbors or something.

Control Panel -> Firewall -> Exceptions tab See if "File and Print Services" is checked.

I thought you had said you had XP SP2, which has it's own firewall, and has a problem with both it and a 3rd party firewall running on the same machine at the same time (host or client doesn't matter.. does it have a firewall AND sp2 with a firewall?)

The XP SP2 firwall is fairly smart. It will detect if there's another firewall present and automagically disable itself. If ZoneAlarm, Kerio, Norton Firewall, or McAfee Firewall are present, the XP SP2 firewall turns off.

My laptop shows just my own wireless network in available wireless

network. And my own wireless network (SSID) is already set as

'preferred'. Does that still mean my laptop may be querying someones else's DHCP

server? Also a while ago one of my laptops was working perfectly fine while the

other one (same make and config) just beside it was not able to acquire

an IP address through DHCP server. So i dont think the problem is that

there is another wireless network in the vicinity.

I do not have any third party firewall. Just SP2 firewall on laptops

and regular WinXP Pro firewall on host desktop. The tool you said - could not make it to work. What would be the device

identifier as asked in it??

No. You have to see the SSID of the access point before it can deliver an IP address via DHCP. So much for that theory.

Actually, that's exactly the symptoms I would expect from a nearby access point.

Ok. You can have the Windoze firewall fairly badly configured and you should still get a DHCP IP address from the wireless router.

No identifier. What you should see is a list of parameters supplied by your DHCP server. It will have your delivered IP address, the gateway address, and the DHCP servers in the list, along with some other junk. However, no easy way to identify the unit except the magic cookie which methinks is a bit cryptic. If you have two identically configured wireless routers and both with identical DHCP configurations, then you would have some difficulty distinguishing between them. Only the magic cookie will be different. However, in this case, we have nothing, so the problem is elsewhere.

The 169.254.xxx.xxx address is what Windoze XP assigns as an IP address when it can't find a DHCP server. This is normal, but it means that something is broken.

I'm not sure exactly where to start, but methinks reducing the system to its basic parts and defaults is the best approach. I'm a bit lost because you didn't start a new message and mixed your system description with another ICS related issue. It appears that you have two laptops using Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG cards. You describe your system as: "On the host machine i have two Network cards. The first one connects me to my ISP and its firewalled (it connects to the internet and is shared). the second one is a wireless one and it is automatically assigned 192.168.0.1 and it is not firewalled. My computer runs a soft AP and the wirless lan card connects to the wireless network simulated by the soft AP." Could you disclose?

1. What wireless device is connected to the ICS server?
2. Where does it get its IP address? From the ICS server?
3. Does the unspecified wireless device also have a DHCP server? Incidentally, I would call it an "ICS server" and not a host.

My guess(tm), is that you have an access point or wireless router running as an access point connected to the ICS server. That means that you can just unplug the ethernet cable between the ethernet card and the wireless device, and connect your laptop directly to the ICS server. You may need an ethernet hub or switch to get the cable polarity correct, but it should work without the wireless. If you get a DHCP assigned IP address, the problem is in the wireless setup. If you don't get a DHCP assigned IP address, the problem is in your ICS setup and configuration. My guess(tm) would be the latter.

Editorial remark: ICS sucks. I usually don't bother answering questions about ICS because it's a mess to troubleshoot and make work reliably. The only justification for using ICS is when your ISP forces you to use a USB or PCI DSL or cable modem. Since you have two ethernet cards, this is obviously not the case. I non-humbly suggest you invest in a wireless router, which does NAT, DHCP, security, and all the things ICS is vainly trying to do, remove ICS, and do things the "right" way (usually my way).

I will try to explain the exact setup of my network:

My DESKTOP has two lan cards -

one is normal LAN card (UTP cable), lets call its network connection as

"ISP"

the other is wireless lan card, lets call its network connection as

"Wi-Fi"

The ISP connection connects my desktop to the ISP. My ISP provides net

connection through a city wide LAN through UTP cables. The ISP

connection LAN card has got IP and gateway as given to me by my ISP

(manually configured). This connection is firewalled (normal WinXP

firewall not SP2) and is shared for ICS.

The desktop has a Soft AP running with a certain SSID. The Wi-Fi

connection of the desktop connects to this Soft-AP (of desktop). The Wi-Fi connection has been assigned the IP 192.168.0.1 due to the

ICS.

Now my LAPTOP: The laptop has just one Wi-Fi Lan card, configured to obtain IP

automatically through DHCP. But its not able to acquire.

I do not have any other hardware like router or hub. I just have

wirless LAN cards and the Soft-AP. I hope the above is clear.

The reason why I am persisting to sove this problem and not buy a

router is cos

1. The current setup was working just fine and beautifully until 15

days ago.

1. I may be switching my ISP and the new ISP is going to give me a DSL

USB modem where i will be forced to use ICS.

I have even tried to reset the TCP/IP stack on the Laptops. Havent been

able to try it on the dekstop yet (cos its not SP2). As a last resort i

may re-install my WindowsXP on the desktop and get the SP2 patch done

on the desktop.

Please help.

siddskapoor wrote in news:1105298994.b73701f350505f7ac39b7c8606ff1bdb@teranews:

That's called the Internet/WAN or public facing network connection.

That's called a LAN or private side facing network connection.

It seems like some people are trying to do this and have nothing but problems.

Doesn't the ISP provide DSL RJ45 jack modems? And besides there is nothing stopping you from buy your own DSL modem with a RJ45 connection. If you buy one, then it should be a brand that's approved to run on the ISP's network. But by doing this, it forces you to support your setup as the ISP will not support it.

Your best solution is to get a DSL modem with a RJ45 connection and use a router if you can and let the router be the gateway device for the WAN and provide the ICS on the LAN. I have seen a few posts made in various NG(s) about the problems with ICS and XP even on a wire setup and losing DHCP on the setup.

Duane :)