Internet Connection Sharing in XP Embedded

[Steve Preskitt]

Hi all,

I asked this question over the in one of the XP Embedded groups, and
it was suggested I ask here as well. Here goes.

The question at hand regards Internet Connection Sharing under XP
Embedded. I have a device whose development I've inherited that acts
as a NATing router to allow multiple Ethernet devices to connect over
a proprietary wireless network. I'm using ICS to connect the devices
on the Ethernet side to the wireless interface, and thus far it's been
working very well. The wired devices are getting 192.168 addresses
via DHCP as I'd expect, and the NAT functionality works well for
contacting the wired devices from the wireless side.

My problem stems from the fact that I need to be able to have some
control over the DHCP addresses that are handed out. Normally, when
trying to do something like this, you'd go to the registry and muck
about under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ICSharing to
accomplish what you need. On the XPE system that I'm working with,
this key does not exist. I cannot find the names of any of my NAT
entries anywhere within the registry, nor in the file system itself.
Obviously this information has to exist somewhere, since the unit
comes up from a cold start properly configured and XPE has to pull the
info in order to populate the appropriate dialogs when editing.

Any ideas where XPE might be hiding this info? TIA.

Steve

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Hi all,

I asked this question over the in one of the XP Embedded groups, and
it was suggested I ask here as well. Here goes.

The question at hand regards Internet Connection Sharing under XP
Embedded. I have a device whose development I've inherited that acts
as a NATing router to allow multiple Ethernet devices to connect over
a proprietary wireless network. I'm using ICS to connect the devices
on the Ethernet side to the wireless interface, and thus far it's been
working very well. The wired devices are getting 192.168 addresses
via DHCP as I'd expect, and the NAT functionality works well for
contacting the wired devices from the wireless side.

My problem stems from the fact that I need to be able to have some
control over the DHCP addresses that are handed out. Normally, when
trying to do something like this, you'd go to the registry and muck
about under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ICSharing to
accomplish what you need. On the XPE system that I'm working with,
this key does not exist. I cannot find the names of any of my NAT
entries anywhere within the registry, nor in the file system itself.
Obviously this information has to exist somewhere, since the unit
comes up from a cold start properly configured and XPE has to pull the
info in order to populate the appropriate dialogs when editing.

Any ideas where XPE might be hiding this info? TIA.

Steve

I'm sorry, but Windows XP doesn't let you configure any ICS settings.
That's the same for Embedded, Home Edition, Professional, etc.

Windows 98SE and Me have that registry key, but XP doesn't.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[AJR]

Why can you not set the scope to include the desirable addresses?

 

[Steve Preskitt]

Why can you not set the scope to include the desirable addresses?

I don't think simply setting the scope will work for me because I will
need to support a number of NAT'd static addresses in addition to the
dynamic ones, and the ranges can't overlap. If there's something that
you might be seeing that I'm overlooking, please feel free to hit me
with a clue by four.

I'd be really surprised if there weren't some way to do with within
XPE (particularly if 98SE/Me supported it previously), as this is
something that is absolutely trivial to implement with most
non-Windows systems. Unfortunately, the proprietary networking
hardware I have to use only has WDM drivers available, so I'm pretty
much locked into XPE, I think.

I guess I may have to look into discarding ICS altogether and
implementing some kind of routing/NAT/DHCP functionality in userspace,
with the attendant performance hit.

Thanks to all who responded.

Steve

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I don't think simply setting the scope will work for me because I will
need to support a number of NAT'd static addresses in addition to the
dynamic ones, and the ranges can't overlap. If there's something that
you might be seeing that I'm overlooking, please feel free to hit me
with a clue by four.

I'd be really surprised if there weren't some way to do with within
XPE (particularly if 98SE/Me supported it previously), as this is
something that is absolutely trivial to implement with most
non-Windows systems. Unfortunately, the proprietary networking
hardware I have to use only has WDM drivers available, so I'm pretty
much locked into XPE, I think.

I guess I may have to look into discarding ICS altogether and
implementing some kind of routing/NAT/DHCP functionality in userspace,
with the attendant performance hit.

Thanks to all who responded.

Steve

You're welcome. Microsoft completely re-wrote ICS between Windows Me
and XP. It's now much more reliable and much less configurable.

Short of hacking the binaries, I know of no way to change XP's ICS
settings.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com