Arch Linux

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

Hi,

I have a Windows XP computer with a working internet connection (wimax through a usb dongle, hardware of which there is no linux driver yet), and I would like to use this WinXP computer as a router through which I connect my archlinux computer to the internet.
However, there is no simple eth-cable between the two computers, but a wireless Linksys router. The WinXP computer connects to the router wirelessly, and the Archlinux computer with a eth0 cable. How do I do this?
In the first place, ICS and linux would be easy; one could simply use DHCP to connect to the windows computer. However, if I use DHCP archlinux would not connect to the Windows-router (with internet access) but to the Linksys-router (without internet access)

I have been able to connect the computers through nfs (linux-linux) and samba (windows-linux), but I have not yet succeeded in making the internet connection to work.

Does somebody have any ideas on how to do this?

Last edited by anadyr (2009-05-22 19:56:17)

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

I think I have identified the primary reason why it does not work:
1) my Windows XP computer is a DHCP server (that it because ICS is activated)
2) my wireless Linksys router is also a DHCP server
Two DHCP server does not work, so I turn off the linksys DHCP functionality. However, when I turn it off, the home network becomes unstable, and only accessible from the Archlinux computer...

It seems that my wireless router should somehow "forward" information from the windows PC to the Linux, but I cannot figure out how...

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

I solved it by using static IPs in the Linksys DHCP configs, and then assigning both DHCP's the same IP ranges. This made the router-PC (windowsXP with ICS) accessible for the first time from the Arch linux box. Internet was painfully slow though, so I turned off the firewall and now it works like a charm.
However, I should fix the firewall I guess...

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

The right way to do this is to configure the Linksys box as a wired-to-wireless bridge - this may or may not be possible, check the Linksys manual/website.

If this is not possible, the next best option is to connect the Windows machine to the router's WAN port - however, since you're using wireless for this connection, Im going to assume that's not an option.

Your workaround involving dual dhcp services is, as you already noted, far from ideal. Then again, at least it works.

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

After reading a lot on the Linksys forum it seems that bridging is not supported. And placing a cable is not my cup of tea. I just keep using my nifty setup until I get fiberglass in two months...

celticmusicguy

Member

From: Zuni, VA, USA

Registered: 2008-07-24

Posts: 24

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

I have a very similar setup here that seems to work well:

-WinXP PC with ICS and a Verizon 3G connection
-Linksys wireless router with DCHP enabled

All the computers here (including this Arch box, a Vista box, my Arch laptop and a couple of Vista laptops) connect wirelessly to the Linksys router. The ICS PC is connected to the router's WAN port (tomk's second suggestion). That allows the router to use DHCP to assign IP's to the computers on the network, and ICS uses DHCP to assign a WAN IP to the router, if I understand things correctly. In any case, however it works, it does work. :-)

[minor rant]I used to have a D-Link wireless router (the DIR-450) that the 3G card plugged into and that setup was way simpler than using ICS, but quite frankly the router was crap. I had two of them die within 3 months' time - the router seemed to lose all its settings after making a simple config change and even after reconfiguring the router and going through its crash recovery process the router just wouldn't start up properly. I probably should have complained to D-Link but I was just too fed up with this particular product that I was ready to move on to something else.[/minor rant]

---

Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there's no point trying to look in that direction because it won't be coming from there.
-Douglas Adams

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

It is not very easy to connect the WinXP with the router's WAN port (as suggested), because I have to place my laptop in an odd place in order to receive the Wimax network...

For anybody with the same problem, here are some more details:
If I disable DHCP in the Linksys-router internet does not work on my Linux box, even though I do not use DHCP to create a connection (but static IP configuration). In addition, I have entered these static IPs in the Linksys-router "assign static DHCP" in order to make it work... The ICS DHCP does not seem to interfere very much; the only thing is that the IP address that Linksys DHCP assigns to the WinXP becomes " invalid" (it for instance cannot be pinged; but it does appear in the Linksys DHCP client table). Instead the IP address that the ICS DHCP assign to the WinXP (which is necessarily in the same IP range as the Linksys DHCP) " overrules" the Linksys-assigned-IP... This " overruling" is pretty strange, but it does enable my Archlinux PC internet access...

anadyr

Member

Registered: 2005-02-10

Posts: 225

Re: Microsoft ICS with Archlinux via wireless router (solved, kind of)

For the records: I found a proper solution using this scheme:

Most important aspect is that the WAN port on the router is not used...