How to Enable ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) on Windows XP computer

Let us think a situation where we have more than one computer(Say two) and one computer is getting Internet connection. We need to share this Internet Connection with other computer but we don't have a router to do so. In this situation we can use a feature of Windows XP or Vista to share Internet Connection. This feature is called Internet Connection Sharing(ICS).

Requirements of ICS

To enable ICS we need to have,

1. One Windows XP computer with two Network Interface Cards (NIC)
2. Modem
3. Ethernet Cables
4. Switch or hub ( If you need to share Internet among more than two computers)

Steps to enable ICS on your Windows XP computer(Server side)

To enable Internet Connection Sharing on your computer follow the steps below.

1. Click on start and go to Control Panel

2. Double click on Network Connections ( If the control panel is in classic view)

If the control panel is in category view ,double click on Network and Internet Connections. Then double click on Network Connections.

3. Click on the network icon which we need to share.

4. Right click on the network icon and click on properties

5. On the network connection properties window click on advance tab

6. Check the check box " Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection"

7. Under Internet Connection Firewall, check "Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet."

8. Now click on Yes to enable Internet Connection Sharing on this computer.

Now this computer will act as the server on your network. The IP address on the shared NIC will be 192.168.0.1

This will be the ICS server IP address.

Get Internet connection to ICS client

To access Internet connection on the ICS client follow the steps below.

1. Connect the client computer to the shared NIC on the ICS server.

2. Run Network Setup Wizard

* Click on Start and select All Programs

* Click on Accessories and select Communications

* Click on Network Setup Wizard



3. Run the wizard



Click on next and follow the instructions to enable ICS and access Internet on this computer.


The IP address on the ICS client computer might be a class C address (192.168.0.X)

X can be from 2 to 254 and the total number of allowed ICS client computers is 253 on this network. We can enable ICS only one time on a single network. As the ICS is in class C network the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0


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