I used to have DSL, and I have a NetGear MR814v2 wireless router that shared the connection with my laptop (wireless PC Card) and iPAQ (wireless CF Card). That worked fine, but I don't have DSL anymore. Does anyone know how I might use XP's builtin ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) software to share a dialup connection? Basically, I would like to turn on my main desktop computer (attached to the router) and dialup my connection. Then, once it's established, the laptop and iPAQ should be able to share that connection. I know there are some routers (like this one) that have a serial port and let you connect an analog modem that way. They'll then dialup your ISP on demand. That isn't what I'm looking for.

Of course this works if I plug my laptop in one of the router's ethernet ports (since that's how ICS is meant to work). I want it to work over the wireless connection.

Also, I saw DrZoidberg's post (here) about accessing files over the wireless network. I didn't really understand the responses. Could anyone explain that to me again? I would like to be able to share files among the desktop, laptop, and handheld via the wireless network. I know that the firewall will need to be turned off (or have appropriate ports enabled) to get the filesharing to work. On the laptop I'll need to have the same workgroup set, and then I should be able to see the desktop using the "My network places" option. How do you browse using the PocketPC?

Thanks.

Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/
XP ICS - Manual Server Setup - Dial-Up Connection
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharin...erverdialup.htm

Hope this helps with setting up ICS.

EDIT: Although a couple of years old, this link may help with setting up the iPAQ
http://www.cewindows.net/wce/wirelesslan.htm

Alan - so the reason I'm worried this might not be possible, if we want to get a bit techy, is that ICS is basically a software router. It uses the IP 192.168.0.1 and I believe my hardware router (the Netgear MR814) uses the same IP. So I'm not certain if it's possible to configure one or the other or is this a conflict that can't be avoided.

I'm not sure about the MR814 in particular, but I think most personal routers let you change the address range that it uses. Take a look in the configuration and see if you can find the setting.

The way I would set things up is to have the MR814 be a "client" machine to your XP desktop. Then have all the other machines plug into the router like they normally would. These other machines would get their IP information from the router, and the router would keep running NAT. The XP desktop would therefore be on a different subnet from all the other machines, AND it would not be able to connect to the other machines (but the other machines could still connect to it).

Is this what you had in mind? Or are you trying to keep everything on the same subnet?

Try this:
1) Disable the router's DHCP server.
2) Assign the router's LAN port 192.168.0.2
3) Connect all computers to the router's LAN ports (don't connect anything to the WAN port).
4) Enable ICS on the ICS computer.

In effect you will be using the router as a wireless switch.

NOTE: I forget where ICS starts its assignable IP address range. Could start 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.0.100. If you get any conflicts you can set the assignable range on the ICS machine excluding the LAN IP of the router.

Thanks for the answers. Looks like there's a good chance I can get this to work by fiddling a bit. If I do get it to work I'll post my methods. I might give up and order DSL again though.