windows xp - Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) w/ USB "bridged" cable
2014-04
Eric54
I found a website that says I can use a USB "bridged" cable for ICS.
( http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Connecting-Two-PCs-Using-a-USB-USB-Cable/248/2 )
My cable modem only has one network plug, so I can't have my desktop and laptop on the internet at the same time, so I hope this works.
Question 1: The problem is I can't find one of those cables on E-Bay. I must be searching for the wrong set of words. I found one ($28) that said it was for transferring files between two computers (link mode). The link above says the cable should come with software for "network mode" - and also lists "link mode" for just transferring files. I did find one USB 1.1 bridged cable (that didn't talk about software/drivers), but I want 2.0.
I would think this would be a sought after item, and would be cheap. I got a USB adapter to hook up an external hard drive w/shipping for a total of $8.95 . This USB cable is considerably simpler, and lighter.
What E-Bay search terms should I be using?
Question 2: Is ICS going to work on my computer, with my cable modem? The following website says the new "improved" Windows XP ICS requires the host IP address to be set to 192.168.0.1.
( www . practicallynetworked . com/sharing/xp_ics/ )
"Ipconfig /all" reports I have a regular IP address (yes it's static), not one in 192.168... (By regular I mean you can address it directly from the internet - I'm not putting it here.)
When I right click on the network connection (host computer w/working internet), select properties, advanced, and check "Allow other computer to connect..." (I didn't check "Allow other network user to control...) I get the following error message "An error occurred while Internet Connection Sharing was being enabled. A device attached to the system is not functioning." I didn't bother trying the wizard as I don't have the USB bridged cable yet, and I don't want to screw up the working connection. Nothing is listed under that check box - I noticed on other websites there's an option box for selecting what it's connecting to - maybe when I plug in and install that cable I'll see it there.
Before I buy the cable, is this computer/cable modem going to work with ICS? (Will I be able to get the host computer, with its IP set to 192.168.0.1, working with the cable modem? - or is there other software besides Windows XP ICS that will work.)
If I have to spend $30 for a cable (ridiculous), should I just get a $10 NIC, put it in the host, and connect it to my laptop (it has an ethernet port) - and will that work? (BTW - I am aware I could spend $50+ for a router...)
Thanks
Windows XP SP3, Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem, Realtek PCIe GBE ethernet card.
JNK
There's no reason to do this. @Dennis Williamson gave the right answer in the comments - buy a cheap switch. It is cheaper, and has a lot more functionality. The PCs can still talk to each other, but they can use the internet connection separately, and you can add more devices. You can add a wireless access point in the future if you want, etc.
You will get better speed, reliability, functionality, and expandability with a switch.
Eric54
I found a broadband router w/WiFi on E-Bay for $20 (total including shipping). It says it can share a single internet connection. So I won't need to bother with ICS, and the laptop will have internet access independent of the desktop. I read about the switch recommendation posted here - for an extra $5 this is much more versatile. I was just going to get a $10 ethernet card for the desktop and use ICS, but when I opened the computer I discovered all of the PCIe slots (3) are already being used. The router will work much better anyway.
AngryHacker
I have a laptop with a Windows XP Tablet Edition installed. I have several users setup on the laptop (mostly me and my kids).
When I try to connect to its administrative share via \DadLaptop\c$ from a Windows 2000 Professional machine, it prompts me for a user name and password. However, after I enter it, it always tells me "incorrect password or unknown username".
As a test I setup another share, called "test" and tried to connect to that. It worked fine, didn't even ask me for a password, just connected to it and that's that.
All the networking is wireless. I am connecting with an admin account (admin on the target computer). What am I missing? Why can't I connect to an administrative share?
8088
I finally got it working: it was a combination of various advice everyone offered. Here is the bottom line - Windows XP Tablet Edition is more akin to Windows XP Home than Windows XP Professional, even though it has a bunch of features from the Professional edition. For networking purposes, it must be treated as Windows XP Home.
By default, it has simple file sharing enabled, thus Windows XP Professional things such as admin shares did not work. Once I cleared the "Use Simple File Sharing" flag in My Computer/Tools menu/Folder Options menu item/View tab, I got the standard Security and Sharing tabs on folder properties, whereas before I was getting this:
After I would get this:
That really was the key.
8088
If you try doing net use \\dadlaptop\c$ at the Command Prompt you should get a more helpful error message. Alternatively try doing:
net use \\dadlaptop\c$ /user:dadlaptop\adminuserondadlaptop
and see if that works.
RJFalconer
You need to be an administrator on the target computer, not your local computer.
Enter the password for an admin account on DadLaptop. "Administrator" with no password is likely to work.
MDMarra
What are the share permissions and what are the NTFS permissions on that folder? Usually c$ is shared automatically when a computer becomes a member of a domain and the Domain Admin group are the only users with permission to that root share. You can check this easily by looking at the file/share permissions.
8088
Open the permissions for the folder in question and make sure Everyone is present.
It should then work exactly the same way as with your 'test' folder, no questions asked.
However, you may not want the root directory shared with everyone, so add Administrator to this list and then you should be able to connect to this folder using the Administrator credentials of the Windows 2000 machine.
slhck
I had an XP machine which I wanted to connect to using a Windows 7 x64 machine. I would type the IP address of the XP machine \\192.168.0.15\c$ and it wouldn't work.
What I did was manually set the IP of the XP machine and I also set the DNS IP to the IP of the DHCP server on the network. Then I connected via Windows explorer \\192.168.0.89\c$ and I got a login prompt.
What was important was to realize that the Windows 7 machine was on a domain, so instead of typing username/password for credentials, I had to explicitly specify the domain of the XP machine as COMPUTERNAME\username and then typed in the password. You can find the computer name in Control panel » System » Computer name.