How ICS Works in Visual C#

Maker PDF 417 in Visual C# How ICS Works

When you enable the ICS host, the ICS host computer becomes an Internet gateway for the other computers on your network. When ICS is enabled, the ICS host uses the IP address of 192.168.0.1. All other ICS clients on your network see this computer as the gateway, and no other computer on your network can use the same address. When a client computer needs to access the Internet, a request is sent to the shared connection, which causes the ICS host to connect to the Internet and retrieve the requested information. To ICS client users, it appears as though their computers are directly connected to the Internet. Clients can use the Internet and retrieve e-mail seamlessly. When you choose an ICS host while using the Network Setup Wizard, the following items are configured on the ICS host, which gives ICS its functionality:

10

192.168.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. If the ICS host has more than one NIC for your workgroup, such as in the case of a multi-segment network, you need to bridge those connections so that both network segments can use ICS.

G The DHCP Allocator service is configured on the ICS host. When addi-

tional network clients are added to the network, this service automatically assigns IP addresses to those clients. The IP addresses range from 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.254 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. A DNS proxy is also enabled so that additional DNS servers are not required on your network. These services run automatically in the background, and they require no additional configuration.

G The ICS service is installed and runs automatically on the ICS host. G If a modem connection is used on the ICS host, autodial is turned on by

default so that the connection is automatically dialed when an ICS client makes a request to the Internet.

You want to use ICS with earlier versions of Windows. Once you set up the ICS host, you can easily set up your workgroup computers running Windows XP and other versions of Windows. Computers running Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows NT 4.0 should be able to use ICS for Internet access. Because not all of these versions of Windows support ICS, use the appropriate steps in the following list for the operating system you re attempting to use: G Windows 98 and Windows Me. Run the Network Setup Wizard from the Windows XP installation CD or from a setup disk you create. The wizard enables ICS Discovery and Control on the non-XP clients so that they can access the ICS host. G Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 (as well as non-Windows platforms). Configure the computers to use DHCP to automatically obtain IP configuration information; they will then contact the DHCP service running in memory on the ICS host, which will send them the appropriate configuration data. You will not be able to use ICS Discovery and Control, but you will still have access to the Internet. When using ICF with its default settings, remember that some traffic might not be allowed to pass through the firewall from the Internet. To learn how to adjust ICF settings to allow ICF to pass through additional types of traffic, see 5, Using Internet Connection Firewall.

For the most part, ICS is easy to set up via the Network Setup Wizard and operates without any problems. However, there are a few settings you might need to change, depending on your desired Internet connection.

You access the ICS and ICF settings for the shared Internet connection by opening Network Connections on the host computer. Right-click the shared Internet connection (the icon appears with a hand under it to indicate it is shared), and choose Properties. In the properties dialog box, click the Advanced button.