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  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris
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Chris

I recently installed a router and wireless adapter to my
2nd pc in order to share my cable interenet connection
between two pcs (both are running XP Home). Everything
went fine until I tried to share the printer attached to
pc1. I was prompted to go through a network wizard,
create a network wizard on a floppy, and run the floppy
on pc2. At that point, I could no longer use the cable
access.

A call to my cable provider said that the connection was
being made to their network, but that the machine being
validated during bootup had different parameters than
what they were showing in their files. Therefore, I
could not be connected.

After much hassle, I finally re-ran my cable company's
setup CD and reset the router. Now I can connect from
either PC, but there's an icon in the system tray that
says I have a bridge that is unplugged.

Is there any way to back out or uninstall whatever that
network wizard did? Or is there some configuration
setting in XP Home that I should be checking for
conflicts? I'm new to networking and would appreciate
any advice.
 
Hi Chris
Firstly, when you run the network wizard and it prompts you to create a
setup disk, then if the other pc is xp too then you don't need the disk. So
ignore it. (same applies to some earlier versions of Windows)
If you've a router then you don't need to install internet connection
sharing on either pc (I know you didn't mention ICS but I just wanted to
stress the point as your router replaces ICS) Of course, that is assuming
that both pcs connect to the internet via the router and you're not plugging
the 2nd pc into the first pc.
Run the network wizard on each machine, for the internet connection side
tell the wizard you're connecting through a residential gateway (or another
computer on the network - Ive had different options depending on whether Im
running it from IE or control panel) This makes your pcs use the router.
If the wizard suggests creating connections for you automatically, it will
probably create some Network Bridges if you have other devices it considers
are networkable eg 1384 (firewire) or NICs. When the wizard finishes you can
go back to the network connections folder and break any network bridges that
have been created. Network bridges work by effectively turning all your
networkable connections into a single Super Nic/hub. You don't need them in
most cases.
The problem you had with the cable validation is very likely that the MAC
address of the router is different to the MAC address of your original cable
connected PC. Every network card in the world, whether it's wired or
wireless, has its own individual MAC ID. If your ISP is like mine then the
original MAC address is registered with the ISP and the cable connection
won't work unless that a network card with that MAC address is used for the
connection. If you sneak in a router then you'd either have to register the
router's external MAC address with the ISP or use the MAC spoofing feature
of the router so that the router fakes it and you can then connect as usual.
 
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