Troubleshooting Microsoft's ICS

How to Troubleshoot
Windows 98SE Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

If, after following all that you have read in the previous pages, you still can’t get ICS to work correctly, you will need to do some troubleshooting.

The most common of the problems you will experience in ICS:

You receive the following message on the client when attempting to access the Internet: “Page can not be displayed“. This is even though when you check the status on the ICS gateway computer it shows that one computer is using the Internet Connection.

Let’s do some checking by the numbers: Note: Since most people use a dial-up connection when accessing the Internet, our test computer (host) was setup using a dial-up adapter rather than DSL, ISDN or another type of “all ways connected” Internet connection. If you are using DSL, ISDN or other form of connection, other than dial-up, you will need to substitute your connection type for the dial-up adapter information provided below.

1. Host Settings:

• Under Dial-up Networking Connections (via My Computer), Settings, General tab

  • Make sure that “Don’t Prompt to use Dial-up Networking” has been selected.

• Under File, Properties, Server Types tab, TCP/IP Settings

  • Make sure that Server assigned IP address is selected

  • Make sure that Primary and secondary DNS is defined

  • Make sure that “Use IP Header compression” is selected

  • Make sure that “Use Default gateway on remote network” is selected

Under Control Panel , Network, Configuration tab, make sure the following are present and/or selected:

• Client for Microsoft Networks

• Your Network Interface Card (NIC)

• Dial-UP Adapter

• Internet Connection Sharing (Adapter) is present

• Internet Connection Sharing (protocol) (Your NIC is present)

• Internet Connection Sharing (protocol) (Dial-UP Adapter)

• Internet Connection Sharing (protocol) (Internet Connection Sharing)

• Your preferred Network Protocol (Your NIC)

• Your preferred Network Protocol (Internet Connection Sharing)

• TCP/IP, Home (Your NIC)

• TCP/IP, Shared (Dial-UP Adapter)

• TCP/IP, Internet Connection Sharing

• File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

• Note: The Primary Network Logon can be set to any logon

Under Dial-Up Adapter, Bindings tab

• Internet Connection Sharing (protocol)

• TCP/IP (Shared)

  Advanced tab

• Enable Point to Point IP: Yes

• IP Packet Size: Automatic

• Use IPX Header Compression: Yes

Under Internet Connection Sharing Adapter

Bindings tab

• Internet Connection Sharing (protocol) Should be Internet Connection Sharing

• TCP/IP -> Internet Connection Sharing

• Your preferred Network Protocol, should be Internet Connection Sharing

Under Your Network Interface Card (NIC)

Bindings tab

• Internet Connection Sharing (protocol), You should see your NIC

• TCP/IP (Home), You should see your NIC

• Your preferred Network Protocol, You should see your NIC

Under TCP/IP (Home) (your NIC)

IP Address tab, you should have:

• IP Address: 192.168.0.1

• Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

  WINS Configuration tab, you should have:

• Disable WINS Resolution

  Gateway tab, you should have:

• No gateway

  DNS Configuration, you should have:

• Disable DNS

  Bindings tab, you should have:

• Client for Microsoft Networks, File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

• TCP/IP (Shared), Dial-Up Adapter, you should have:

• no settings made

TCP/IP, Internet Connection Sharing

IP Address tab, it should be set as:

• Obtain an IP address automatically

  WINS Configuration tab, it should be set as:

• Disable WINS Resolution

  Gateway tab, it should be set as:

• No gateway

  DNS Configuration, it should be set as:

• Disable DNS

  Bindings tab, there should appear as bound:

• Client for Microsoft Networks

• File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

• Browse Master: Set to Enabled

• LM Announce: No (**Note: Enabling this may cause Windows 98SE to hang on shutdown)

** We have tried setting LM Announce to both Yes, and No to see if there was a root cause to the hang we were experiencing. What we learned was that by enabling this feature, Windows 98 would take anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes to shut-down or restart, and that was if it didn’t hang completely. We have since set LM Announce to No, which in turn solved the shut-down/restart problems with no apparent effect on ICS what so ever.

Under Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections tab

• Always dial my default connection (make sure that this has been selected)

• Perform system security check before dialing (make sure this is selected)

  Under Local Area Network (LAN) settings

  Sharing, make sure have selected:

  • Enable ICS

  • Show Icon

  • Use Dial-up Adapter to Connect to Internet

    LAN Settings, make sure you have selected:

  • Automatically detect settings

2. Check the Client Settings:

• Under Control Panel, Network, Configuration tab, make sure the following are present:

  • Client for Microsoft Networks

  • Your Network Interface Card (NIC)

  • Your preferred Network Protocol bound to your NIC

  • TCP/IP bound to Your NIC

  • File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks (enabled)

  • The Primary Network Logon can be set to any logon

• For Your Client Network Interface Card (NIC)

  At the Bindings tab, make sure that:

  • You have bound your preferred Network Protocol to your NIC

  • You have TCP/IP bound to your NIC

• Check your TCP/IP bindings to your Client NIC

  Under the IP Address tab, make sure this is set to:

  • Obtain an IP address automatically

    At the WINS Configuration tab, make sure you have this set to:

  • Use DHCP for WINS Resolution

    At the Gateway tab, make sure that this is set to:

  • No gateway

    Under DNS Configuration

  • DNS should be disabled

    At the Bindings tab, make sure that you enable:

  • Client for Microsoft Networks

  • File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

• Under File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks, make sure that:

  • Browse Master is disabled

  • And LM Announce is set to “No”

Under Control Panel, Internet Options, Connections tab, make sure that:

• Connect to the Internet using a local area network has been checked

This is how winipcfg looks on one of the test client machines:

If you have worked your way through all of this, double checked everything and then restarted each of the computers (beginning with the host and then working your way through each client), your ICS network should be up and running.

If you are still experiencing some problems, you may want to review the Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles that are relevant to Internet Connection Sharing. A list of these Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles articles can be found Here.