Hey all!

I have a WinXP computer that I am using as the host for ICS (internet connection sharing); I also have a Win98 computer that I am trying to access the internet with through the XP computer.

I used the XP wizard and made a floppy for the 98. I can see all the shared files from one computer to the other so I know they are connected, but I can't access the internet from the 98 machine.

I've done this before without problem so I don't know what I'm doing wrong this time. The two computers are connected via a crossover cable (two NIC's in the XP, one for internet and one to hook up to another computer) and my internet connection is cable.

Hope someone can help!

From the 98 machine, do an IPCONFIG /all at the dos prompt and see what you get. The gateway and dns servers should be listed there same as they are on the xp machine. See if you can ping the default gateway, if so try pinging daniweb.com if dns is working, it will return dani's IP even if it can't ping successfully.

are you sure ipconfig works in 98?

If not, try winipcfg /all from the command prompt.

Ipconfig works in 98

Well, I think I found out why it doesn't work, but I don't know how to fix it. The problem seems to be on the host computer (which is running Windows XP). I go to Network Connections -- Properties (for the NIC that connects to the net) -- Advanced. Here, the Internet Connection Firewall and Internet Connection Sharing boxes are both unchecked; when I try to check either of them (or both), I get an error message as soon as I click OK:

An error occurred while Internet Connection Sharing was being enabled. The dependancy service or group failed to start.

I tried using the Wizard, which set both of these to be enabled, but then they're not.

Does anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it?

Does anyone know how I can at least enable my XP firewall?

You can read about the possible causes for the dependancy error, and their solutions, in the links returned by the following Google search:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22wi...&start=10&sa=N


Try those and let us know if one does the trick for you.

Nothing there helped, all the Dependency services required are set to start automatically. The only thing I found in the search is that others that have the same problem after cleaning viruses; I just recently got rid of a trojan (with the help of the techs here). That is probably what caused it, but I need to know how to fix it now. Windows update doesn't give me anything new either.

My suggestion at this point would be to try to uninstall Internet Connection Sharing and then re install it after a reboot. Microsoft says you cannot change ICS configuration, DNS and such after it's been set up. Never tried, but maybe something like that happened. XP can do some strange things with Network Connections.

You can also look in your logs for errors messages which might indicate exactly which service is failing. At least that might narrow things down a bit.

To view your logs, use the Event Viewer in your Administrative Tools folder.