# Solved: ICS DNS problem



## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

I have 3 computers sharing a WiFi Internet connection using Win ICS. Client and one machine are XP Home SP2. For no apparent reason, clients lost Internet access, but network continues to work fine. Host still has normal Internet access. Reinstalled the network and ICS without improvement.

Finally discovered that clients have Internet access for numeric IP addresses, but not for domain names. IPconfig shows clients have DNS set for 192.168.0.1 which is correct for ICS. I manually set client DNS to the DNS addressed used by the WiFi adapter and now clients have full Internet access.

Thus it appears that host has stopped forwarding DNS requests. Can anyone offer an explanation?

FredVN


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## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

bump


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

Why are you using ICS?
Can you give us more details as to the exact makeup of your network hardware and structure? How does everything connect together?


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## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

The network is located in the fringe area of a community WiFi hotspot. WiFi cards with standard antennae do not receive useable signals. I have therefore mounted a 16db yagi antenna in a window. In order to avoid the need for low-loss cable I have connected it to the host computer using a Hawking WiFi USB adapter. To avoid the need to duplicate this setup for two other computers, I use ICS to share the connection. Internet connection wizard was used to setup that computer as the ICS host and all other computers as clients.

System consists of a Hawking WiFi router and 3 computers. The host connects to the router via wired Ethernet (100 base-T) and runs WinXP. Another computer running Win98SE also connects to the router using 100 base-T Ethernet. The third computer, which runs WinXP, connects to the router via my own WiFi network.

The system worked fine for many months, then suddenly lost Internet access on both clients (the network continued to share files and printers correctly & the host had Internet access). I finally diagnosed it as a DNS problem. The clients both used 192.168.0.1 for their DNS as they are supposed to with ICS. I changed their DNS's to the DNS used by the host and that restored Internet connectivity to both clients.

My assumption is that MS issued an update that somehow blocked the host's ability to forward client DNS requests. What do you think? Is there a better way to setup this network without using ICS?

FredVN


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

FredVN said:


> My assumption is that MS issued an update that somehow blocked the host's ability to forward client DNS requests. What do you think?


Well, that's not likely.


> Is there a better way to setup this network without using ICS?


I think I'd connect that hi-gain antenna to a Wireless Access Point and distribute the signal that way. You could input the signal into the WAN port of a router, or simply use a switch to distribute it. I sure wouldn't think of ICS for this task.


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

Did you turn off DHCP on the wireless router?


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## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

The only WAN ports I've seen on routers are Ethernet but I've never seen an Ethernet WiFi adapter. Furthermore, the WiFi adapters I've seen require drivers. Would drivers run on a router?

FredVN


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## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

Yes, DHCP is disabled on the router and both clients.

FredVN


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

I'm pretty sure that when JohnWill wrote, "I think I'd connect that hi-gain antenna to a Wireless Access Point" he really meant to say Wireless Bridge. Or maybe meant wireless access point configured as a wireless bridge. The bridge would "translate" the wireless signal to ethernet; the ethernet port can be connected to a switch or the WAN port of a router.


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## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

Thank you for the advice. If I understand it correctly, a better setup would be a wireless bridge like the Linksys WET11 that would be connected to the high-gain antenna and to the WAN port on a router. It would provide the signal from a WiFi hotspot to the router, which in turn would distribute it to all computers on the network. Is that correct?

FredVN


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Correct, I should have said wireless bridge.


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## FredVN (May 15, 2006)

Thanks very much. If I have additional problems I'll give it at try.

FredVN


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