WinXP Firewall preventing ICS on Win98 Client

[Melanie]

I have two computers networked together -- One (host)
running WinXP (internet via dialup modem), client running
Win98SE. Everything had been working fine for about 2
years -- file sharing both ways AND internet connection
sharing -- until a few weeks ago when this problem
started. XP machine working fine -- internet connection
good, email working, etc. -- but on the 98 machine,
Internet Explorer refused to do any browsing on the web.
I would type in a URL, it says "Web site found. Waiting
for Reply." and the progress bar would crawl very slowly
about halfway, then hang... until a few minutes later when
I would get "The page can't be displayed" message. MSN
Messenger worked fine, and I could browse the Google site,
but nothing else. AND Outlook Express timed out when
trying to download email. I have no idea what may have
happened recently to cause this, so I even wiped and
reformatted the hard drive on the Win98 machine and
started completely over, reinstalled the network adapters
and everything -- and it still wouldn't work.

Last night I disabled the Firewall on the XP machine, and
that did the trick. So now I'm running XP without the
firewall, and I'm wondering... don't I NEED that enabled?
(I'm running Norton Antivirus) And if so, how do I get it
back without losing my browsing on the 98 machine?

Thanks.

 

[BobC]

I have two computers networked together -- One (host)
running WinXP (internet via dialup modem), client running
Win98SE. Everything had been working fine for about 2
years -- file sharing both ways AND internet connection
sharing -- until a few weeks ago when this problem
started. XP machine working fine -- internet connection
good, email working, etc. -- but on the 98 machine,
Internet Explorer refused to do any browsing on the web.
I would type in a URL, it says "Web site found. Waiting
for Reply." and the progress bar would crawl very slowly
about halfway, then hang... until a few minutes later when
I would get "The page can't be displayed" message. MSN
Messenger worked fine, and I could browse the Google site,
but nothing else. AND Outlook Express timed out when
trying to download email. I have no idea what may have
happened recently to cause this, so I even wiped and
reformatted the hard drive on the Win98 machine and
started completely over, reinstalled the network adapters
and everything -- and it still wouldn't work.

Last night I disabled the Firewall on the XP machine, and
that did the trick. So now I'm running XP without the
firewall, and I'm wondering... don't I NEED that enabled?
(I'm running Norton Antivirus) And if so, how do I get it
back without losing my browsing on the 98 machine?

Thanks.

Too bad you didn't read XP's help about ICS and ICF before going to all the
trouble of reformatting etc. Help states that enabling ICF on an ICS
interface adaptor may interfere with LAN communications. I recommend you
get a free firewall such as zonealarm, sygate, ouitpost, etc then configure
it for your LAN.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

sharing -- until a few weeks ago when this problem
started. XP machine working fine -- internet connection
good, email working, etc. -- but on the 98 machine,
Internet Explorer refused to do any browsing on the web.

Last night I disabled the Firewall on the XP machine, and
that did the trick. So now I'm running XP without the
firewall, ...

Melanie,

your ICS computer has two network connections, one out to the
Internet, one to the Local Area Network (LAN).

On the one to the LAN the firewall has to be disabled. I
strongly suspect that it was disabled all the time, until you or
someone else enabled it by mistake.

The firewall should be enabled on the Internet connection
though.

Hans-Georg

 

[Melanie]

your ICS computer has two network connections, one out to the
Internet, one to the Local Area Network (LAN).

On the one to the LAN the firewall has to be disabled. I
strongly suspect that it was disabled all the time, until you or
someone else enabled it by mistake.

The firewall should be enabled on the Internet connection
though.

Hans-Georg

The firewall is disabled for the LAN connection -- in fact
the option is grayed out and I couldn't enable it if I
wanted to. The only way I can browse on the client
machine is to disable the firewall on the host (XP). I'm
guessing that I installed a Windows Update or something
recently that made it so that my client computer can't
browse past the firewall anymore.

Also... I tried Sygate Personal Firewall and couldn't
configure it for ICS in order to browse on the client.
I've resolved myself that I just need to keep the XP
firewall enabled on the host machine, and only disable it
when I need to use the client for browsing the internet.
At least the file sharing works fine, which was my primary
reason for the network in the first place.

Melanie

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

The firewall is disabled for the LAN connection -- in fact
the option is grayed out and I couldn't enable it if I
wanted to. The only way I can browse on the client
machine is to disable the firewall on the host (XP).

Melanie,

what I had written, about the firewall having to be disabled on
the LAN connection, is valid for every computer in the LAN,
"client" and "host". The firewall is only needed on the outgoing
connection to the Internet, never on any LAN connection.

Also... I tried Sygate Personal Firewall and couldn't
configure it for ICS in order to browse on the client.

Sygate replaces ICS (Internet Connection Sharing built into
Windows). Both cannot work together. I would not recommend to
use Sygate unless you have a good reason for it, like a needed
function that ICS does not offer.

Hans-Georg

 

[BobC]

Melanie,

what I had written, about the firewall having to be disabled on
the LAN connection, is valid for every computer in the LAN,
"client" and "host". The firewall is only needed on the outgoing
connection to the Internet, never on any LAN connection.


Sygate replaces ICS (Internet Connection Sharing built into
Windows). Both cannot work together. I would not recommend to
use Sygate unless you have a good reason for it, like a needed
function that ICS does not offer.

Hans-Georg

We are talking free firewalls. Sygate's free personal firewall does not
replace ICS.
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

We are talking free firewalls. Sygate's free personal firewall does not
replace ICS.
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

Bob,

oh, sorry. I was only aware of the earlier Sygate Home Network
or what's it called.

Hans-Georg

 

[BobC]

Bob,

oh, sorry. I was only aware of the earlier Sygate Home Network
or what's it called.

Hans-Georg

NP