What is Internet Connection Sharing?
Internet connection sharing is a capability that allows multiple computers to share a single Internet connection simultaneously. If, for example, a family has a DSL or Cable Modem connection and three computers, ICS allows all computers to use the Internet at the same time and all at high-speed. With ICS there is no need to order additional connections from your service provider and it eliminates the need for dial-up accounts or extra phone lines.
Internet connection sharing (ICS) describes the ability of a network of two or more computers to share a single Internet connection. Internet connection sharing can be used at home to share a high-speed DSL or cable connection with all computers in the household. It is also utilized by businesses to provide Internet access throughout a network using a single Internet account. The ability to set up Internet connection sharing has been built into Microsoft Windows operating systems since Windows 98 Second Edition (SE). ICS is usually only used with a high-speed Internet connection, as two simultaneous users, for instance, use twice the bandwidth resources. A dial-up modem connection slows considerably when accessed by multiple persons. Networks can be configured several different ways. In general, however, Internet connection sharing requires Ethernet cards in each computer, a hub or switch, and a router. There are high-speed DSL and cable modems available that have the router and switch
Windows 98 now provides users the ability to share one Internet connection with multiple computers on your home network. One computer, the Connection Sharing computer, communicates with the Internet. Requests from other computers on your home network are routed to the Internet through the Connection Sharing computer. You can also configure Internet Connection Sharing to allow users on the Internet to reach Web, e-mail, and game servers that are on your home network.
A. In a small office/home office (SOHO) environment with two or more networked computers, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) is a great addition to Windows XP and Windows 2000. ICS lets all machines on your network use one machine’s RAS connection (e.g., modem, ADSL, cable modem, ISDN) for Internet access without additional software. ICS is available on XP and Win2K Professional systems as well as on Win2K Server products. When you enable ICS, the machine becomes a cut-down DHCP server with the nonroutable IP address 192.168.0.1. The ICS machine gives out addresses in the 192.168.0.x range to the other machines in the network (which you must configure to use DHCP). Because of the IP address change, you shouldn’t enable ICS on a domain controller (DC), DNS server, DHCP server, or any other machine that offers a static service. When you enable ICS, you lose any current TCP/IP connections, and you have to reconnect them. You can’t modify the network configuration ICS uses (e.g., changing t
Internet connection sharing is essential if you want to use one internet connection for all computers in your network. Setting up of Internet connection sharing depends on OS of your computers. With the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature of network and dial-up connections, you can use Windows to connect your network to the Internet. By enabling ICS on the computer that uses the dial-up connection, you are providing network address translation, addressing, and name resolution services for all computers on your network. Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing enables a computer connected to the Internet via a cable or DSL modem to share its connection with other computers connected to it. This kind of sharing might not be the best, but it is cheap because of its minimal hardware requirements and fairly straight forward to set up.
