Please forgive me if this question is too elementary for this forum.

I have set up a small 2 machine home network, using Windows XP on both computers. The network is set up by connecting both computers to an ADSL router, and then going through the Windows XP new network connection wizard (that's the extent of my networking knowledge!)

At the moment, both machines have access to the internet through the router.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to allow the computers to share files, as they do at the moment, but only allow one of the computers to have access to the internet? I would like to keep all my internet traffic on one computer only, so that I can remove all resident security software from the other one. This would allow me to keep as much CPU space as possible for high demand programs, such as Photoshop.

I have looked at my software firewall (Online Armor free) and can't see any way of blocking access to the net, but allowing a local network.

Machine 1 runs Windows XP Pro SP3, and the other runs Windows XP Home SP3.
I run Avast! Free, Online Armor Free, Superantispyware Pro, Sypware Blaster, Spybot S&D on both machines. My router is an iConnectAccess 624.

You have a couple of options here:

The most obvious would be to configure the router to block Internet access for specific LAN IP's, whilst still allowing resource sharing over the LAN.

Another way if the router wont allow the above scenerio, would be to misconfigure TCP/IP settings on the computer you wish to restrict WAN access to with an incorrect gateway IP. Then computer's can't get to the Internet but can still access their local network. Just make sure the users don't have admin rights to change it back.

Regards

Thankyou for your reply. At the moment my knowledge of these things is so limited, I wouldn't know how to configure the router as you suggest. However, I will try reading the manual and see what I can work out.

No problem.....This is probably what i would do:

On the computer you wish to restrict WAN access for, open a command prompt (start>run>command for XP) and type in ipconfig/all and hit enter.

Note down the IP addresses of both the computer your on, and the also the routers IP addy over the LAN (should be 192.168.1.1 or similar).
Im also assuming the router is a wireless gateway (modem inbuilt)

Next open up your web browser (IE or firefox) and type the routers IP address into the address bar of the browser and hit enter.
You should now be staring at the routers interface log on screen asking you for a username and password.
login username: root
login password: OP3N

Once inside, you can configure the router to restrict IP addresses on the LAN to gain internet access.
I dont have any direct experience with your make of router and the interface setup will be different to my SMC, but you should find all you need to perform these functions with this PDF file manual for your iConnect Access 624 right here:

www.opennw.com/_pdf/624_38.x.x_Tech_Ref.pdf

Regards