Vista ICS problems

[Calderon501]

Hey guys, I'm having some trouble with Vista's ICS feature.

I have a custom built desktop running Vista Home Premium x64
motherboard is Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
there's 2 wired NICs, one getting internet from my dorm room, the other going out to my other pc

the second is an Asus EEEPC 1000HE, running Vista Business x32

I've tried a myriad of static, dynamic, IPv6 on/off, windows firewall off/on, etc.

ping in CMD gives a "destination host unreachable" on both computers
wireshark doesn't show any traffic going to or from the PCs

I've spent about 3 weeks tinkering with this.

Anyone got any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[alexdagr8est]

So you can get the internet but one of the other PC's cannot connect, am I reading this right?

 

[Calderon501]

yes sir. my desktop is grabbing internet in my dorm room. i want to use ICS to allow my netbook access to the web as well. However all my efforts have ended in shear frustration...

 

[alexdagr8est]

So at the moment you are trying to connect your EEePC to your desktop or to your other pc? (are you using a wireless router?) If you are connecting to another pc to get their IC, you need to use an ad hoc connection.

Do you have any wireless connections to connect one of your pc's to your EEEPC

 

[Calderon501]

i have no routers.

i have 1 desktop.

i have 1 netbook, the eeepc.

i have a plethora of network cables, wifi on the netbook, but other than that, my university's IT department would revoke my rights if i threw in a wireless access point or anything of that nature (they're very fussy when it comes to protecting their ancient and outdated baby).

[Internet]----->[ResidenceHalls]----->[Desktop]----X--->[Netbook]

thats my rudimentary illustration. both computers realize there is a cable connected, but neither will acknowledge each other in terms of IP addressing or networking.

 

[Calderon501]

also, while I may eventually use an ad hoc network broadcasted from the netbook for my iphone, that isn't an immediate concern. my main problem is that the netbook and the desktop will not talk to each other at all.

 

[alexdagr8est]

with the PC, update the drivers for the motherboard. Also when you go to "manage network connections" what comes up(on your desktop)? does it even "show" that you have 2 ethernet adapters?

 

[Calderon501]

i have already searched for the best drivers available, and all are up to date. network connections shows local area connection and local area connection 2. lac1 has the internet, i tried enabling ics on there, rebooting, etc, lac2 shows cable connected, is in unknown public network, has ip of 192.168.0.1, subnet of 255.255.255.0, which was set by ICS not me. the dhcp server ics is supposed to have doesnt issue an IP to my netbook, i put a static on that of 192.168.0.5 255.255.255.0, default gateway and dns server both pointing to desktop. this does nothing, and leaves me with no networking capabilities.

Also i have been working on this problem for a good 2 weeks now, and gave already gone thru the basic troubleshooting steps (including restarting the machines) to no avail.

 

[alexdagr8est]

run the internet connection again, bridge the network to the other ethernet adapter and set it as adhoc

 

[DC187]

So just to confirm the cable you're using is from the ethernet port of your pc to the ethernet port of your netbook. If that's the case you need to ensure the cable you're using is a crossover cable.
A standard straight through CAT5 cable won't work.

 

[zigzag3143]

As dc says It needs to be a Crossover (null modem) cable. You are going to have to bridge the connection and may have to sahre it as well.

Ken

 

[Calderon501]

from what i've heard, the newer NICs autonegotiate the pairs, eliminating the need for a crossover cable. I've successfully done this in the past with a straight through cable, no hiccups.

also, bridging the network connections didn't work, because that is more for aggregating bandwidth between two independent networks. the netbook has no other internet connection.

 

[DC187]

Have you successfully done this in the past using the devices you're using now?
Do you know for sure the NIC's you are using are autosensing?

Well short of putting a switch in between your two machines I suspect it'll be easier (and cheaper) to obtain a crossover cable to test that.

I still suspect it requires crossover

 

[Calderon501]

yes, i did infact perform my task, about 3 weeks ago.

then a boatload of viruses happened, i wiped both machines.

the netbook originally had xp home on it. it worked PERFECTLY with vista ICS on the desktop, and i was flying.

now that i've updated the netbook to vista business, and my desktop is wiped clean, nothing works.

and yes, i was infact using a straight thru cable before all this virus trouble happened.

 

[DC187]

Well in that case forget about ICS for the minute and lets prove the two machines can at least "talk" to each other. You will want to disable ICS for the minute.

Ensure the straight through cable is connected.
Assign one PC with an IP and Subnet mask eg 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
Assign the other PC/Laptop with IP 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0

Now try to ping each machine by IP and see if you get any replies, if that works then I suspect the issue to be with ICS.

If it doesn't check Device Manager, select properties on the Network adapter, click the Advanced tab and see if you can spot a setting related to autosensing the cable. Don't get confused with the Auto Negotiation of speed and duplex settings.

Other than that I can only go back to my suggestion of either putting a switch between the two devices or testing with a crossover cable. It could be that one of the NIC's is just simply not performing the Auto sensing of the cable in which case a crossover cable should do it.

I would always recommend crossover cable to anyone trying to setup in this way regardless if the NIC can auto sense or not.

 

[Calderon501]

okay tried all of that, no luck. under the advanced tab in the configure menu for both desktop and netbook i put on 100mbps half duplex, turned on flow control, looked for some other settings, and unfortunately none of them helped. the computer store on campus doesn't have crossover cables in stock and they aren't really very helpful. guess some experiementing is in order


now if only i had bulk cable, rj-45 ends, and a crimper....

 

[DC187]

Can you borrow a switch from somewhere to test it works through that?

By the way change the settings you changed on the network adapter back to how they were if you haven't done so, we don't want to introduce more problems into the equation

Let us know how you get on.

 

[zigzag3143]

from what i've heard, the newer NICs autonegotiate the pairs, eliminating the need for a crossover cable. I've successfully done this in the past with a straight through cable, no hiccups.

also, bridging the network connections didn't work, because that is more for aggregating bandwidth between two independent networks. the netbook has no other internet connection.

If it is 1000 mb it should auto sense especially if it is on a cat 6 cable

Ken

 

[Calderon501]

lol thanks for all your help guys. it indeed is an issue of requiring a switch / crossover cable. i ran out and got a gigabit switch, and now everything's working just peachy!

shame that the nic in the netbook isn't auto-sensing... must be vista... VISTAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for all your help!

 

[DC187]

Glad to hear you found a workaround/fix