13/05/2010 Im provising Your O w n W ireless Router - O 'Reilly M edia

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by W ei-Meng Lee, author of W indow s XP Unw ired Subscribe to Wireless
10/31/2003 Subscribe to Newsletters
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Most homes today have a broadband connection to the
Internet. Contrary to w hat the ISPs w ant you to believe, you can actually share the Be the first to post this article
to del.icio.us
connection w ith multiple computers at home by using a router. If you're a w ireless
user, simply buy a w ireless router and it w ill enable you to share the connection
w ith multiple computers w irelessly.

How ever, you might not w ant to invest money in another piece of equipment, Sponsored Resources
especially in this economically trying time. So, in this article, I w ill show you how to
use the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature available in W indow s XP to Inside Lightroom
improvise a w ireless router so that you can share the Internet connection
w irelessly.
Related to this Article

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13/05/2010 Im provising Your O w n W ireless Router - O 'Reilly M edia

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What You Need

First, I assume you have a broadband connection, like a cable or ADSL/DSL

connection. I w ould also assume you have more than one computer, since your
motive is to share the Internet connection w ith multiple PCs.

Next, designate the PC you w ant to act as the "w ireless router." This PC must be
connected to the broadband connection, that is, to the cable or ADSL/DSL modem.
This PC must also have a w ireless adapter connected. In my case, I connect the
Linksys W USB11 USB w ireless adapter (see Figure 1) to my PC.

Figure 1. The Linksys WUSB11

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Figure 2 show s the proposed settings for sharing the Internet connection:

Figure 2. The proposed setup for ICS

Configuring the Wireless Adapter

First, let's configure the w ireless adapter. In the Tray on the Taskbar, locate the
w ireless adapter icon and right click on it. Select "View Available W ireless Netw orks"
(see Figure 3). The W ireless Netw ork Connection w indow w ill display.

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Figure 3. Configuring the wireless adapter

Click on Advanced, and the W ireless Netw ork Connection Properties w indow w ill
appear. Select the W ireless Netw orks tab. Under the Preferred netw orks group, click
on Add.(see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Adding a new wireless network

Enter a netw ork name (or SSID), such as MyWirelessNetwork. Uncheck the Data
encryption (W EP-enabled) checkbox if you do not w ish to enable W EP. Click on OK
(see Figure 5).

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Figure 5. Specifying a wireless network name

Back to the W ireless Netw ork Connection Properties w indow , click on Advanced and
select the option "Computer-to-computer to non-preferred netw orks only" (see
Figure 6).

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Figure 6. Selecting the ad hoc networks option

Basically, I am configuring an ad hoc netw ork using my w ireless adapter. All

computers w ishing to share the Internet connection w ould need to establish a peer-
to-peer netw ork connection w ith this w ireless adapter.

Configuring Internet Connection Sharing

Next, let's configure the PC that w ill be sharing the Internet connection (the one
designated as the "w ireless router"). Right-click on My Netw ork Places and select
Properties. You should see at least tw o connections -- one that connects to the
Internet (most probably your Ethernet card) and one w ireless connection.

Right-click on the Internet connection and select Properties. Click on the advanced
tab and check the "Allow other netw ork users to connect through this computer's
Internet connection" checkbox under the ICS group (see Figure 7). Select the
connection that you w ant to use for sharing. In my case, I selected the W ireless
Netw ork Connection. Click OK to complete the configuration (the Home netw orking
connection is only present w hen tw o or more netw ork adapters are installed on the
computer).

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Figure 7. Enabling ICS

That's it! To confirm that the setup is correct, check the IP address of the tw o
netw ork adapters by issuing the ipconfig command:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : dom.mycompany.com

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 156.20.217.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

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Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 156.20.217.31

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

As you can see, the Internet connection has the IP address of 156.20.217.100,
w hile the w ireless netw ork adapter has the IP address of 192.168.0.1. This is
important, because the connection that is to be used for sharing must have the IP
address of 192.168.0.1; otherw ise, the sharing w ill not w ork. (You can change it
manually in the TCP/IP settings of the w ireless adapter, if it is not set correctly.)

One final check before you go on to the next step: launch Internet Explorer to see if
you can connect to the Internet.

Your improvised w ireless router is now ready to use!

Configuring the Client

On the computer that w ill share the Internet connection, right-click on your w ireless
netw ork icon in the Tray and select Properties. You should be able to see the SSID
of the ad hoc w ireless netw ork (see Figure 8).

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