Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual

Internet Connection Sharing

If you have cable modem or DSL service, you’re a very lucky individual. Not only do you get spectacular speed when surfing the Web or doing email, but your connection is on full time. You never have to wait for some modem to dial (screeching all the way), and wait again for it to disconnect. It’s just too bad that only one PC in your household or office can enjoy these luxuries.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can spread the joy of high-speed Internet to every PC on your network in either of two ways:

• Buy a router. A router (also called a residential gateway) is a little box, costing about $80, that connects directly to the cable modem or DSL box. In some cases, it doubles as a hub, providing multiple Internet jacks into which you can plug your PCs. As a bonus, a router provides excellent security, serving as a firewall to keep out unsolicited visits from hackers on the Internet.

• Use Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). ICS is a feature of Windows XP. Like a router, it distributes a single Internet signal to every computer on the network. Unlike a router, it’s free. You just fire it up on the one PC that’s connected directly to your cable modem or DSL box—or, as networking geeks would say, the gateway or host PC.

  But there’s a downside: If the gateway PC is turned off, nobody else in the house can go online. Furthermore, you have to install two Ethernet cards into the gateway PC: one that goes to the cable modem or DSL box and another that ...