Internet Connection Sharing Woes

[Firsty]

I ****ing hate it.
I got Xbox Live a month or two ago.
It took 6 hours to get my network set up and have it connect okay.
The XBox connects to my PC, which shares the internet connection. Well it's supposed to. The reason it took 6 hours the first time is that when WinXP said it was sharing the connection, it really wasn't. I can't quite recall how I fixed it. I just spazzed out and ripped all the networking guff outta WinXP and reinstalled it. Then it worked fine.

Anyway I just did a clean install of windows and it's doing it again. I turn on ICS, but no internet traffic is forwarded to the XBox. It's telling me lies again. Does anyone know why this happens? From what I can tell it's just me that has this problem.

[Super Stu]

Is the XP firewall enabled on the shared dial-up connection?

[Firsty]

No, firewall off.
It's not a dial up connection.
On the surface I have everything set up exactly as it should be.
This is what happened last time

My PC has a wireless adapter and a nic. The wireless adapter connects to the router, it provides the net connection. So I enable ICS on it, it says everything is fine. I have all the IP addresses configured fine, as well as DNS settings. The XBox connects via the nic and can see that the PC is there, it just isn't ever sent any internet traffic!

I have no idea why ICS doesn't work properly on MY machine!

[randombs]

odd, i've had no problems with my xbox being on ICS (other than my dad dc'ing when he's done :| )

if you've got a modded xbox with evox see if you can ping your xbox from your pc. also, evox may have played with your ip settings for live so check they're fine too. i just leave it on dhcp and it's fine.

if you know someone with a laptop try connecting it to your pc and see if it shares the internet that way.

check if there's a bridge between the wireless and network card - if there is, try disabling ICS and see if you can connect directly. if not, disable the bridge and try ICS again.

another thing, your wireless router may be set up to hand out dhcp addresses, and enabling ICS will set your pc to 192.168.0.1 and it too will hand out addresses, which will cause a conflict. Bear in mind that although ICS sets your PC's ip to .1, you can change it to whatever you like.

make sure you switch your pc on before your xbox, or else dhcp won't kick in properly

i'm clutching at straws here btw

one more thing to try - enable ICS on the PC and manually edit the xbox settings, but set the gateway and dns server to your PC's ip address (.1 or whatever)

have you installed a firewall and then removed it recently? i put zonealarm on my pc once and hooked my xbox up after i'd uninstalled the prog, and my pc wouldnt allow my xbox to connect, so i had to reinstall zonealarm, allow xbox, then uninstall.

[Firsty]

Everything is set up exactly as it was before.
I was using exactly the same settings yesterday on my old installation.
Everything is seemingly exactly as it should be.

Windows just won't ****ing share the ****ing connections ****!
Why does everything have to be complicated?

[nips]

Just spazz out and ripp all the networking guff outta WinXP and reinstall it. That usually works :P

I was using the wrong cable with my console. My Cat cable and cross-over cable are the same length and colour which is why I couldn't connect my PC to my XB when I had the exact same settings... but of course, that won't be a problem for you. Could it be something similar to that? I'm not familiar with wireless networks, but is there a setting like 1 or 2 way traffic or something similar?

[Firsty]

The wireless network is running fine.
Xbox connected to PC using a crossover.
I can FTP using EvoX fine.

I can't understand why my PC won't send any traffic.

[edandersen]

You do realise that sharing a wireless connection over a local ethernet on ICS is NOT "officially" supported by Microsoft, right? They honestly want NOTHING to do with it. Using Internet Connection Sharing on a wireless network is buggy as **** in WinXP, but I've got it working, and thats how I use Live.

Attached is a screenie of my settings on the PC (the xbox is not on, so the ethernet cable is "disconnected") - definately make sure the settings are automatic on the Xbox. Make sure there are NO firewall apps on the PC.

[Super Stu]

It's not a dial up connection.

Yes, I know you're on dsl. Yes, it is a dial-up connection.

If you're vaguely serious about using your consoles online, get a router (netgear DG834 ?60, for example). If you're just piss farting about, there are guides on how to get your Xbox online via a router or ICS on the official Xbox site.

[Firsty]

I don't use that stupid dial up PPPoe on my PC. My router handles all that.

Anyway, I'm the same as you Ed

[Super Stu]

Now we're getting somewhere, only took 10 posts. "all the facts" is like getting blood out of a stone.

So your PC connects to the router via wireless, and you're trying to share with ICS the connection between PC and router, not the internet connection then.

You're better off with a wireless bridge. Let the Xbox connect to that and have it connect direct to the router.

[Firsty]

I know I'm better off with a wireless bridge, but I can't afford that <g>

I have

................................Pipex
..................................|
......................Wireless Router
...................... _______|_____________________
......................|.....................|.......................|
.............(ICS)>|............. Sister's Machine Another Computer
......................|.....................^^^................^^^
..............My computer........< (all wireless connections)
......................|
......................| (can ftp, but no internet traffic to or from Xbox)
......................|
...................Xbox

[Firsty]

Just to clarify.
I got Xbox Live a few months ago.
It took 6 hours to get it to work, everything was set up as it should have been. Except the Xbox wasn't getting any net connection. I had a spazz attack and uninstalled all the network stuff. Then it worked fine. No problems at all. From what I could tell, ICS wasn't actually sharing the connection until I uninstalled all the stupid networking things and reinstalled them.

Cut to now, a few months later.
Fresh install of XP. Having the same problem as before. I just don't undertand why ICS wouldn't want to work

[Super Stu]

ICS makes your PC act as the gateway. The router is actual gateway. Is that allowed? (I'm no networking expert).

Why not bridge the wired and wireless networks and remove all the ICS **** from your PC? Presumably the Xbox will be part of the overall network then and receive an IP etc via dhcp from the router itself.

[Firsty]

Actually I just tried that.
Internet connections drops.