Hello mxnmatch,
Thanks for your question.
I have a desktop and a laptop, both running Windows 98 and I do just
this. I run Zonealarm on both and it requires no special setting other
than putting the second machine in the trusted zone of the primary
machine in Zone Alarm settings.
You might be aware of ICS or Internet Connection Sharing which is a
part of some Windows OS's starting with Windows 98 SE. The biggest
problem with this, in my opinion, is that it splits the bandwidth
between the machines sharing the connection. I ruled this out as a
choice for my use.
The solution is to have two NIC cards and run your primary machine as
a proxy server.
With one NIC, setup a connection to your second computer. Use the
internal IP address numbering schemes (there are three I will document
in a moment). Set Zone Alarm to allow all communication from the
second machine by placing it in the trusted zone. Start a proxy
server, configure your email, web and other web enabled applications
to use the proper proxy ports and you are up and running.
Let's look a little more closely:
There are many proxy programs around and you can search CNET, or
TUCOWS, or Nonags or any of the shareware sites for one that you might
prefer. Some are free. I use Analog-X:
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network.htm
By the way, the are a lot of excellent freeware products on this site.
You might spend a moment to look around.
The program we want is called Proxy:
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/proxy.htm
"Do you have several machines on a network, but only one connection to
the internet? Wish you could browse the net from the other machines,
just like you can from the machine that's connected? Then what you're
looking for is called a Proxy Server, and AnalogX has just what you
want. AnalogX Proxy is a small and simple server that allows any other
machine on your local network to route it's requests through a central
machine. So what does that mean in English? Simple, run Proxy on the
machine with the internet connection; configure the other machines to
use a proxy (it's very easy, there's a detailed description in the
readme), and voila! You're surfing the web from any other machine on
your network! Supports HTTP (web), HTTPS (secure web), POP3 (receive
mail), SMTP (send mail), NNTP (newsgroups), FTP (file transfer), and
Socks4/4a and partial Socks5 (no UDP) protocols! It works great with
Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL, AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft
Messenger, and many more!"
From the readme file, I have excerpted some of their notes on setting
up the network. Do note, this is the reason for TWO NICS. One is the
one you are using now and connects to your DSL modem and has all of
your settings for you Internet connection. This will either have a
fixed IP address assigned to you from your service provider, or a
dynamic IP address that will be assigned automatically to you by your
service provider each session you log on. The other NIC needs to be
set up in the following manner to talk to you second computer:
":::Configuring your local network:::
In order to use this on your local network, you must be using TCP/IP
as one of the methods the machines have to talk to each other (this
can be found inside the Settings->Control Panel->Network, if you see
TCP/IP, you're good to go).
If for some reason it doesn't work, ie, the other machines can't see
the Proxy, the most common problem is the IP addresses you have the
network configured to. There are only a couple that are valid to use
on a local network, I would
recommend you use 10.0.0.x (where x is a number between 0 and 255 that
will be specific to each machine). Try changing the IP and then using
the Proxy again. Also, just because your machines can see each other,
doesn't mean that TCP/IP is configured properly; if you are unsure of
whether or not this
is set up properly, do the following: Choose 'Run' from the start
menu, and type 'ping [IP]', so if the other machine has the IP of
'10.0.0.1', you would type 'ping 10.0.0.1'. If the machines can see
each other, this will say something like 'Reply from...' blah blah
blah; if they can NOT see each other, this will say something like
'Request timed out.'
Unless you have your local IP address assigned to you, there are only
three groups of IP's that are valid for you to use on a machine that's
connected to the net (that won't collide with other machines). They
are:
10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 (Class A)
172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 (Class B)
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 (Class C)
So make sure your LOCAL network IP's fall within one of these three
ranges, or you're more than likely going to have problems....
...they continue with the network setup tutorial..
...One more thing to note about the TCP configuration; once it's
completed you'll have TWO TCP configs - one that's used for your
internet connection (which you shouldn't have to change), and one
that's used for communicating across your local network (the 10.0.0.1
example). For some reason if you use Dialup networking, and ADD
another TCP/IP protocol, Windows binds it to the modem, and there
doesn't appear to be any easy way of changing this - if this happens
to you, I normally recommend removing the dialup networking
configuration, then add everything to get the local network going,
then re-install the dialup networking configuration."
Do read the entire readme file for some very good information. I have
found that they are indeed correct that the most common problem in a
failed setup of this type is the networking settings for the NIC
between the two machines. It may seem a bit intimidating, but take
your time to understand the concepts and you should be up and running
very quickly.
You might also read the readme files and installation notes for some
of the other proxy programs you may discover. Here is a link to the
CNET listings for your convenience:
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=proxy&tg=dl-2001
There are 380 programs listed here 8^)
One more note. When you connect from one computer to the other using
the NIC cards on each as a direct connection, you will need a
CROSSOVER cable. This is a special CAT 5 cable that is used just for
connecting two machine together and has a different pin out that a
standard network cable. They are available at most any computer store
and most office supply centers.
So, your investment to make this function as you desire can be as
little as a cable, a NIC and free software - perhaps $15 or so.
I trust my research and my answer will help you set up your new
network and share your DSL connection easily and quickly and
inexpensively. If a link above should fail to work or my research
require further explanation, please do post a Request for
Clarification.
Regards,
-=clouseau=- |
