Please Help ! * NeoTel - Internet connection sharing issue *

[Darisha]

Hello everyone.

I will try to explain this as best as I can but if I leave anything out, please post questions.

I have the Neotel phone and the uncapped (R1000.00 per month) option. The phone, as you all probably know, is USB.

My idea was to connect the phone to the server (running Windows Server 2003 R2, setup for DNS and DHCP), share the neoconnect internet connection (I am not using the neoconnect manager), connect the server to a router/switch (NETGEAR WNR2000 V2 - 4 port ethernet, wireless and a WAN port) and then to connect 2 PC's, a NAS via ethernet and a laptop via wireless.

The laptop runs Windows XP SP3 (up to date, firewall is off)
The 2 PC's run Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (up to date, firewalls are off)

I've managed to make everything work for about 2 months ... give or take a day. Everything was running smoothly, the 2 PC's and laptop all had internet and my network worked like a charm. One day it all stopped:

* The server is the only machine on my network that has access to internet.
* The 2 PC's and laptop don't, but they all get their IP's and Gateways successfully from the server.
* Every computer can connect to the NAS and watch movies, listen to music and view share files and folders, but they just don't have internet access.

This is what I have done so far:

* I have disconnected my internet connection and taken Internet Connection Sharing off, then I went online and disconnected again.
* I then enabled my Internet Connection Sharing again and connected to the internet (same story, only the server had internet access)
* I have checked my Netgear and made sure that the IP is different to that of the server and that DHCP was disabled (I've pretty much made it into a wireless hub), saved all the settings and still nothing. Server is the only one with access to the internet.

PLEASE HELP! This is so frustrating. It all worked fine and then it stopped all of a sudden.

I'm sure I am overlooking something here but I just can't figure out what it is.

Oh yeah, I have the phone installed on all 4 USB ports and no matter which port I connect the phone on, same story.

All and any advice/help will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[ebendl]

I'm surprised that you managed to get everything at all - my Neotel phone did not want to play along with ANYTHING other than Windows XP. Tried a 2003 server as well as a Windows Vista machine. The server machine literally connected for 10 minutes, disconnected and then redialed - highly frustrating.

Have you checked DNS? I started using Google's DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) since it is ALWAYS available - the ISP's tend to change theirs' every so often. So my setup was: Windows XP notebook, connected to Neotel and with ICS enabled. Fixed IP (192.168.0.1). Server, also fixed IP, 192.168.0.2. Set up to point to default gateway of Netbook (you can actually prevent the server from reaching the internet at all - I found this useful). Then set up the Server as not an ICS-server, but only to act as DHCP. Assigned the notebook's IP as gateway and Google's DNS as DNS settings. To all of this was connected a WiFi router, but only the LAN side, and with the DHCP disabled.

Also, sometimes the DHCP server set up itself as an DNS, but somehow never forward DNS requests to the actual DNS server.

My guess would be the server, though - something changed there...

 

[Darisha]

I was also thinking the server was giving me grief but a friend who is an admin for a company checked everything with me over the phone and he also thinks there is something wrong with the ICS ..... but he can't really understand why it is not working. He then told me to post my problem here and ask for help.

I don't know why you couldn't get Neotel to work on anything other then XP ??? You mustn't use NeoConnect manager that comes with Neotel ...... I deleted that icon, went into CONTROL PANEL > NETWORK CONNECTIONS and then put a shortcut from the neotel connection on my desktop. I then went into properties of the neotel connection, under the network tab and enabled the client for microsoft networks. That enabled me to dial without using the neoconnect manager. <-- this worked for me on any machine that I tried (XP, Vista, 7 and Server 2003).

You see, even having said all of the above, I still believe that there could be something wrong with the DNS, but my friend keeps assuring me it can't go wrong. I will try the whole ICS thing again and this time I will reboot after every change and then see what the hell is going on and report back here.

Thank you for your input and advice.

Cheers

 

[ebendl]

Mmm, I was able to use the created network connection without ever using the NeoConnect manager. Or I created a new one on my server, can't remember.

I do remember asking the NeoRep why my tower was so bad - sincerely thought it was my tower dropping me the whole time. The move to the XP machine meant going from 10 min disconnects to 6 days connected at once!

I don't remember anything weird in my Server based ICS setup, though, thought it actually a bit simpler than the Windows XP one.

Unfortunately I'm out of Neotel's coverage now - having moved recently - so I'm cancelling and won't be able to recreate the setup here (get voice but no data whatsoever)

 

[Darisha]

Good news. I fixed the issue. It was a DNS problem after all. I simply went into my Neotel connection and set the DNS to Google's DNS as well as my DNS settings on the server (I wanted to make sure).

Topic may now be locked.

Thank you.