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Clueless newbie questions

I am completely new to the concept of wireless internet and both the terminology and technology involved, so please forgive me for asking probably stupid questions. Please also forgive me for being long-winded in my explanation, but I hope if I explain things as clearly as I can, someone may be able to help me.

I have a Belkin ADSL Modem with Wireless-G Router (# F5D7632uk4) and want to set this up on my computer so that I can connect my son's computer wirelessly to the internet.

2 main problems here: 1) When connecting to the internet via said modem/router, my internet connection kept dropping after about an hour or so and I couldn't work out how to get it back. It just seemed to work again when it felt like it.

2) I'm completely confused as to how to share my internet connection (when it does work) with my son's computer. The user manual that came with the modem/router tells me how to configure the router (and yes, I checked that all my settings were correct), but I couldn't find any explanation on how to get my son's computer to wirelessly share my internet connection.

We both have network cards in our computers - mine's a Desktop Network PCI card, so I can connect the modem/router to my computer, his is a Wireless Desktop Network card with one of those black aerial things sticking out the back, which is meant to connect a desktop PC to a wireless network. Both cards are made by Belkin.

We use different operating systems (my computer is on WinXP, his on WinMe) but I checked thoroughly via WinXP's troubleshooter for incompatibilities and didn't find any.

I got everything working on my computer, but although his computer detected my internet connection, nothing happened when he tried to browse the internet. So... I ran the WinXP network setup wizard on my computer, made a network setup disk as instructed, ran the network setup disk on his computer - and then my internet connection dropped completely and I couldn't get it back. I now found that I couldn't access the router setup interface by typing 192.168.2.1 into my browser, either.

I ran the XP networking troubleshooter again and this is where I got completely confused. The troubleshooter informed me that I should have two network connections - an internet connection and a LAN connection. (See

formatting link
for details of what has me confused!) What baffles me is that I thought my modem/router was supposed to be an internet connection AND the way to connect my son's computer wirelessly to the internet. I don't have a separate LAN connection to the best of my knowledge. The result of using the XP troubleshooter was that I could *either* get my computer to connect to the internet *or* get my son's computer to recognize a network connection between our computers - but not both. If someone could explain things to me in very simple terms, I would really appreciate it!

Reply to
Eevee
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As you have an actual hardware router, you shouldn't even need to use ICS (software router). To talk on the internet, both the local PC's ethernet NIC (I'm assuming it's connected directly the router with CAT5) and the wireless card on the other PC only need the TCP/IP protocol. Set both to get their IP's dynamically and ensure that the router's DHCP server is enabled. In the router's LAN config, set the IP you want to use (192.168.2.1). This IP will be the default gateway given to each connected client. In the DHCP server config, make sure that the range of IP's handed out are on the same subnet (i.e., 192.168.2.x). If the router's DHCP only allows for 192.168.0.x range, you'll have to change the router LAN IP to

192.168.0.1 Subnet 255.255.255.0, of course.

That, and encryption configured (if used) "should" be the only thing required just to talk on the internet.

Sounds like ICS and the router are probably banging heads. ICS is normally used when you don't have a hardware router/gateway and want to setup a specific PC to function as a router/gateway.

Jumping ahead to if you want to do file sharing in addition to internet:

If you want the two PC's to be able to do file/printer sharing in the same workgroup, "Netbios over TCP/IP" needs to enabled in both the computer's TCP/IP properties. If you are paranoid about file sharing over TCP/IP, you could also use NetBEUI in addition to TCP/IP . It needs to be encapuslated inside IDX though, as NetBEUI isn't a routable protocol. Or, could do the VPN thing as well. Router may also have a function to enable/disable hardwired and wireless clients with one another.

Hope that helps some. Getting both of these on the internet should be fairly simple. Start off by removing ICS.

Cheers,

-Eric

Reply to
Eric

As you have an actual hardware router, you shouldn't even need to use ICS (software router). To talk on the internet, both the local PC's ethernet NIC (I'm assuming it's connected directly the router with CAT5) and the wireless card on the other PC only need the TCP/IP protocol. Set both to get their IP's dynamically and ensure that the router's DHCP server is enabled. In the router's LAN config, set the IP you want to use (192.168.2.1). This IP will be the default gateway given to each connected client. In the DHCP server config, make sure that the range of IP's handed out are on the same subnet (i.e.,192.168.2.x). If the router's DHCP only allows for 192.168.0.x range, you'll have to change the router LAN IP to

192.168.0.1 Subnet 255.255.255.0, of course.

That, and encryption configured (if used) "should" be the only thing required just to talk on the internet.

Sounds like ICS and the router are probably banging heads. ICS is normally used when you don't have a hardware router/gateway and want to setup a specific PC to function as a router/gateway.

Jumping ahead to if you want to do file sharing in addition to internet:

If you want the two PC's to be able to do file/printer sharing in the same workgroup, "Netbios over TCP/IP" needs to enabled in both the computer's TCP/IP properties. If you are paranoid about file sharing over TCP/IP, you could also use NetBEUI in addition to TCP/IP . It needs to be encapuslated inside IDX though, as NetBEUI isn't a routable protocol. Or, could do the VPN thing as well. Router may also have a function to enable/disable hardwired and wireless clients with one another.

Hope that helps some. Getting both of these on the internet should be fairly simple. Start off by removing ICS.

Cheers,

-Eric

Reply to
Eric

Wireless routers are already set up to share internet by default using a feature called NAT; that is why you won't find much instruction on how to share internet.

If you reset the router to factory default, it should just work, provided you set up your PC and your son's PC correctly. Each PC should have a network card driver (wired or wireless) bound to the TCP/IP protocol.

Use the command line program "ipconfig /all" to verify that each PC is getting an IP from the router's DHCP server.

When you get internet to work on both PCs, then worry about security and file sharing.

Don't rely on network setup wizard or network trouble shooter. They only solve a few specific problems. It's better to ask people.

You need to understand NAT, DHCP at the least to debug this kind of network problem.

-p

Reply to
peter

Ah, you may have put your finger on the problem there - thank you very much! I will go through the settings and check to see if this is what's causing the problem.

I hadn't realised this - none of what I'd read had made this clear to me. Thanks!

Yes, we do want to be able to share files and the printer - this is really helpful! Thank you very much for taking the time to explain things clearly and in detail to me - very much appreciated!

Reply to
Eevee

Ah, right, that explains things!

OK, I think I need to check that the network card driver on my son's computer is bound to the TCP/IP protocol - thanks!

Yes, you have a point - I've had far clearer explanations of what I need to know by asking here than I managed to get by searching help files. Thank you very much for taking the time to be so helpful.

Reply to
Eevee

NP. Hopefully that will be helpful in getting ya up and talkin'. :^)

(Oh, sorry, subsitute "IPX" for "IDX" in my previous post. I think my fingers were thinking "IDNX".)

Cheers,

-Eric

Reply to
Eric

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