USB Connection and Win2k ICS

J

JAS

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Pretoria, South Africa.
Because of my unsuccessful attempts at getting the MyWireless modem connected to my DI-624 router, I have in the meantime, I have set up the modem using the USB connection on my production Windows 2000 Professional (SP4) machine.

I have been using the Win2k ICS on my ISDN connection without any problems, and since the software just sets itself up as a modem on a com port, I was expecting to be able select ICS on the new connection, and be able to share the internet connection on other PC attached to the network.

Strange thing is that it sort of works. I can connect to google (and some other websites) from another machine, but can't connect to many other websites at all. For example, I can connect to www.grc.com, select "ShieldsUp" on the home page. The next page with all their products appears. If I then scroll down select "ShieldsUp" then nothing happens. On the PC connected directly to the modem I have no trouble with any websites.

1) Anyone used the MyWireless (USB Connection) and Windows 2000 ICS successfully?

Thanks in advance
John Smith, Pretoria
 
I am sure a few people have resolved it, and there is alot about it elsewhere, but because I only want to access web sites with the client I use "pppshar lite" which is a free proxy server connection that works like a dream and easy to set up and easy to disconnect if not in use.
 
Another MTU issue. Time to add this to the FAQ.

Do a search on the forum for MTU topics. This has been covered and covered and answered to death. First try the MTU stuff then report back.

I personally used 1530 on my LAN pcs (Win98) and it fixed the problem.
 
Yup, sounds like MTU issue. I also had some a few difficulties getting Win2K to use the correct MTU, what worked in the end (and is covered elsewhere on this forum) is using a utility called DrTCP (google for that). I set mine to 1412 but I think it can go higher - check elsewhere on this forum.
 
JAS, let me know if you got this working please.

My next step is to install windows 2000 on my gateway machine, but i have windows xp on all the other machines on the network - so hopefully it'll still work.

i have the same problem you're having, just on windows xp.

if all else fails... influence with hammer
 
Many thanks to those who replied. I also did a search for previous related threads, and downloaded DrTCP (from http://www.broadbandreports.com/drtcp), as suggested above. Although I did not manage to find a definitive answer, the thread discussions did give me enough clues to point me in the right direction.

I certainly is an MTU problem, and I summarise my solution here in the hope that it helps others in the future.

I was not certain what the MTU value should be, since many different numbers have been mentioned in the various threads. DrTCP reports my "Dial Up (RAS) MTU" as being 1458. I then confirmed this number by pinging an external site. When the size you give ping is too big then it reports that the packet has to be fragmented. The maximum was "ping -f -l 1430 <ip address>", and since ping has a 28 byte overhead, that gives a maximum MTU of 1458. Great, so at least at this stage I knew I had the right MTU number.

My gateway machine is running Windows 2000 (SP4), with ICS enabled on the "sentech" connection. The next step was to use DrTCP to change the MTU on the gateway machine LAN card to 1458. I had initially hoped that the client machines that connected to the gateway machine via this LAN card would detect that it was limited to 1458 and automatically adjust themselves. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The secret is then to use DrTCP to adjust the MTU of ALL the client machines to 1458. Remember to reboot after changing the MTU with DrTCP. ICS then works fine. My gateway machine is also running ZoneAlarm which seems to load itself at a very low level so that all the clients are protected as well (verified using "ShieldsUp" on http://www.grc.com).

I have tested this configuration with WinXP Home, WinXP Pro and Win98 clients machines.

Although my gateway machine is running Win2k, I'm sure the same solution would apply to a gateway running WinXP.
 
There is a simple(r) solution. Set your DHCP server to supply MTU values and TTLs etc. Imagine you have a 10 PC network. Then do you really wanna go sit at each one and reset the value etc. Okay 10s not bad but 20 or 100 can be a mission.
 
I have been advised to use a win2k server for my gateway machine (to solve my problems)

Something tells me this is not the best solution due to ICS. Perhaps I'm wrong but my impression of ICS is that it isnt that powerful,quick or configurable.

Anyone using a 2k server with ICS NAT setup. Please, browsing is not an issue but gaming, P2P, bittorrent, IRC etc all must work. Also stuff like VNC,shoutcast,ftp serving etc etc

My system works well now except for uneven traffic spreading (many connections using up equal parts of the bandwidth on one PC thanks to TCP/IP [:p] ) so all I want is a better or optimal solution.
 
You can try Routing and Remote Access under Win2k server but it's not all that great. It does allow you to do the basics though, and setup PAT. R&R does allow MSS clamping for different interfaces if I recall correctly.

W2kPro, basic ICS is braindead apparently.


<center><h5><font color="red">Oo. MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info.oO </font id="red"></h5><h6>Have you checked the fawking FAQ?</h6></center>
 
I use NAT (Routing and Remote Access) on Windows 2003 Server and it works perfectly. The only port forwarding I needed to set up was for eMule and IRC DCC. For VNC and FTP/Web all you need to do is forward the relevant ports. I don't play any online games however I imagine there would be no problems. It may be overkill to run Windows 2003 (or 2000) Server if all you're using it for is routing, however if it does the job then why not [:)]
 
Thanx rodent for explaining to me how these things work.

I changed my card MTUs to 1400, 1432 still gave problems, but on 1400 it seemed the best.

my other machines on the network can get the same download speeds as my machine running ICS.

and considering up until 2 days ago i have never played with ICS, i was rather amazed and impressed at how easy it actually is to set up, "*click* done"

I did that test on the site, it says "satalite users dont use this"
http://www.broadbandreports.com/tweaks
now i am wondering, what is mywirelesss most like? Satelite ? we are on satelite internationally, does that count?

And i just need to get this off my chest.... The monkey that chirped about learning some networking stuff. Erm ja, back when they were pissing in their nappies i was pulling cables to to get those thomas conrad tokenring cards working with my novell networks, and using bindery which was before novel's NDS , which was 7 years before microsoft had the bright spark of ADS,

lay of the chirps leet boy. I might just put Agent Smith on you, he will zap your signal... and yes, agent smith does exist, he works for sentech[:D]
 
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