Sharing a Client PC's wireless connection?

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superkdogg

Gawd
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Oct 14, 2004
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My network right now is essentially DSL modem->Buffalo WHR->360, 2 PCS AND
->Wireless PC in the garage.

What I want to do is be able to get to the internet on more than one PC in the garage, without installing wireless adaptors in any/all PC's in the garage. Reason being is that I've started doing some repair/tech work out there and I want to connect client PC's to the internet without having to install drivers, etc. for wireless cards and then uninstall that stuff when I'm done.

What is the best way to share the connection in the garage without buying new hardware? Running wired ethernet is impractical too.
 
Hey! We have the exact same problem. The way i'm currently going about it is through Windows' ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). The best tutorial I found for novice users is http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/

It's not the best solution, espec. if your network goes through something like a water heater, but hey, it works well enough. For me, I am about to go towards a Powerline Networking solution, which you might want to do also, but it's more costly than Windows free ICS.
 
You could get a USB wireless network card -- most are pretty much plug-n-play with only small driver requirements. If you found one that made ya happy, you could swap them in and out pretty easily. No opening of the computer cases required :).
 
Drakan290 said:
Hey! We have the exact same problem. The way i'm currently going about it is through Windows' ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). The best tutorial I found for novice users is http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/

It's not the best solution, espec. if your network goes through something like a water heater, but hey, it works well enough. For me, I am about to go towards a Powerline Networking solution, which you might want to do also, but it's more costly than Windows free ICS.
Click to expand...

My wireless has a clean shot and a high-gain aftermarket antenna, so the signal is very good even through the aluminum garage door and the minivan.

I don't think I can do powerline (although it's a great idea in situations like this) because my garage has seperate electrical service from the house. Come to think of it, maybe some smart guy who ran that electric out to the garage left me a string in the conduit....


I was thinking ICS too. The issue there is that the client PC has to be 192.168.0.1. I wasn't sure if I could route a static LAN IP to just that machine and have the router do DHCP for the rest of the network or if the ICS machine would need to take over DHCP (I don't always leave it on) or if I'd have to static IP everything (more secure, but makes the problem of connecting client PC's worse).

I'll put more effort into figuring out the ICS deal.

Re: USB wireless adaptors, I could try that too. I was trying to avoid having to repeatedly install/uninstall drivers for every machine I fix, but in honesty it wouldn't be the end of the world at a time cost of 5 minutes each.
 
I personally use ICS at work. my laptop gets the wireless connection which feeds my linux machine. I've actually be thinking about using a switch instead of a cross over cable between the 2. I have more machines that need access to the network here. so yes that is an option.

in terms of DHCP just change your router IP from 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.1.1
 
What would happen if I leave the wireless client pc and the router in the same subnet but I give the router .254 and static route .1 to the client and also set the router's DHCP pool to be say .245-.253?

The way that I'm thinking, the router and the ICS machine would both be able to assign IP's, but if they are not assigning the same IP's is that really a problem? Ultimately all the devices would end up on the same subnet with unique addresses unless I'm missing something.
 
Update--

I couldn't get this to work. I'm sure it was because of something that I don't know or something being misconfigured....

I did however come up with a solution that will definitely fix the problem. I'm going to end up running about 100' of Cat5e out to the garage in conduit. Since it's only one cable (I'll set up a switch in the garage) and only needs small pipe, it will be minimal cost and will give faster speeds and take out the wireless connection issues. Hopefully I can convince the wife of the 'need' for this prior to winter.

Thanks for the advice.
 
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