Make computer act as a gateway to route traffic from a LAN through another network connection

Darkrising

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Dec 26, 2013
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10,510
I'm trying to make my computer act as a gateway to allow my LAN to access the internet through it.

Perhaps it is easy just to show you:
network_diagram.jpg


As can be seen from the image, my LAN is stuck without an internet connection and my computer is the only one on the network able to access the internet.

ICS is not an option as my server is the one handing out IP addresses and they would fight each over to the death. (Plus my pc would have to on all the time)

If I could somehow make it that computers on my LAN could just use my computer as the default gateway then that would be great.

Any suggestions or advice is much appreciated.
 

Urumiko

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Dec 28, 2013
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it sounds a bit strange that your router is not the internet gateway. I am surprised internet connection sharing needs your computer to be the DHCP server..
I can thnk of 2 things to try....
1.. Manually bridge the 2 connections on your PC
2... set up a software web proxy on your PC or the server.

Either way you may need to configure your home server to hand out this information by either changing the default gateway to the proxy pc, or a configuration script for IE, not sure im not a server guy :)
 
Its been a while since I used ICS and I am relying on my memory here so I may be wrong. To use a different subnet than the default one ICS likes to use you must edit the registry to make this change. I am pretty sure you can disable the DHCP service with a registry change also.

Even if you were to find a way say to bridge the tether to the Ethernet you are on different subnets so some device would have to route between them. And it still does not solve your issue of having to leave the computer on.

I would keep a eye on the tplink and asus router supported wireless broadband devices. I suspect at some point in time they will find a way to support a tethered cellphone in addition to the dongles.

As a side note be very careful about tethering a "unlimited" cell phone. I have been looking for a LONG time trying to find one of these. So far all I have found only offer unlimited internet on the phone itself once you tether it all kinds of fine print comes into effect that puts the caps and massive costs back on again. They can detect by the type of traffic you send if you are tethered or not so you actually have to use more advanced techniques if you are trying to bypass their restrictions.
 

Darkrising

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Dec 26, 2013
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I pretty much solved my issue using a raspberry pi as a router :)

As for the mobile tethering, I'm in the UK and there is a company called Three that offer all-you-can-eat data, I've looked at the fine print, the maximum download limit is 1000GB no fair usage policy attached. I've been using it as an internet connection for about a year now, last month I downloaded a total of 300GB with no problems.

 
I am not in their coverage area :(

I did read though their terms for the one in the UK and they have a footnote on the all you can eat data that says it does not include using your phone as a modem which means tethering. Since I can't get them anyway I did not read the ones that are not in english but it is extremely rare to find a plan that lets you use unlimited data with a computer.
 

Darkrising

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Dec 26, 2013
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I'm using the One plan from Three, it has to be a contract otherwise it won't allow tethering.
 

Urumiko

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Dec 28, 2013
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Just FYI i was on that plan from three and could tether no bother. I then took out the same contract as a new customer via carphone warehouse as they could offer me a better deal on the handset i wanted. Then i found 3 is now blocking tethering by detecting it at the network end and trying to charge extra.. This is very annoying as i specifically asked if id be allowed to tether when away on business (rarely), and they said i could. the time before i bought a phone which was supposed to be all you can eat and it wasnt, it was a 1 gig limit with a content filter that would restrict anything remotely adult, such as 18 rated computer games. Three always have cheapest data contracts but please be very weary about what your buying!