Broadband down :-( Help me configure Neighbour's wifi to cover my LAN

[@craker]

My ISP is variously quoting 30 Dec - 7 Jan to restore my broadband.

In the meantime a helpful neighbour has suggested we can use wifi to connect to their router. Is their a way I can share this network connection across my network?

I've got an XP machine with a wifi dongle connected to the internet. It's also got a ethernet cable connecting it to the router. (Brightbox - http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/Bright-Box-wireless-router)

Now nothing on the machine could see the net 'til I went to the network settings and ticked 'Allow Internet Network Sharing'. So now the local machine can see the 'net but it can't see the local LAN, and the local LAN can't see the internet machine.

Can someone help me set this up? I've tried creating a network bridge but I just seem to lose the internet like that.

Thanks z\\\\\\\\\\

 

[RealBeast]

To share a network connection you have to actually get a connection on one adapter, and then it shares to another adapter on the same machine, which in turn shares with all the devices on that adapter's network. It sounds like you are close, as you have the right connections available.

So if you can get your neighbor's wifi on the wireless adapter, then you can use ICS (or bridge the adapters with ICS OFF!) to allow the other machines on your second adapter's network connect.

Your wireless adapter should be configured to automatically obtain an IP address from the neighbor's router and he will give you the security type and passphrase to use.

And you should be using the ICS box in the wireless adapter settings, not the Ethernet adapter, since it is the wireless that has the connection to share.

Which port on the router are you connecting your Internet wifi machine's Ethernet port to?

 

[@craker]

Cheers. Not sure if I understand what ICS is doing to my wireless connection. I might as well not have the ethernet cable plugged in if ICS is shared on the wifi dongle. (Ethernet was plugged into port 4 - marked WAN. It's now in port 1).

Here's what IPCONFIG has to say.

with ICS check for the wifi connection -

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 12:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Edimax nLite Wireless USB Adap
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 80-1F-02-5C-D6-FA
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.34
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 22 December 2012 22:09:38
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 25 December 2012 22:09:38

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82562V 10/100 Network
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-D1-36-2E-86
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :



and with ICS disabled..


Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 12:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Edimax nLite Wireless USB Adap
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 80-1F-02-5C-D6-FA
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.34
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 22 December 2012 22:12:59
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 25 December 2012 22:12:59

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : default
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82562V 10/100 Network
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-D1-36-2E-86
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.118
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 22 December 2012 22:16:26
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 24 December 2012 22:16:26

 

[RealBeast]

What ICS does is to share an Internet connection between two adapters on the same computer, then other computers attached to a network on the second adapter also have Internet access.

Your wireless adapter looks to be properly configured as it is getting an IP address from your neighbor's gateway at 192.168.1.1.

Your internal LAN needs a different address range -- so configure your second adapter as 192.168.0.1, which is the default when using ICS, and allow it to assign addresses to the other machines on your home network automatically -- one of the features of ICS is a limited DHCP service.

Attach the computer with wireless and Ethernet to an LAN port on the router (not the WAN port) and turn off the DHCP in your router, your router will just be a switch. Then insure that you can see all your internal LAN computers on your network. Then enable ICS on the wireless adapter.

Here is a short tutorial on using ICS on XP: http://www.petri.co.il/configuring_ics_on_windows_xp.htm