Sharing Internet Connection w/ 3 PC's

[kdrake1007]

I'm trying to connect 3 PC's using one ISDN internet connection. Each PC can connect separately, but once one is logged on, the others cannot connect.

Here's my setup:

Ascend Pipeline 75 Router

3Com OfficeConnect Hub

1st PC connects via RJ45 cable to Hub running Window XP SP2

2nd PC etc. connects via Belkin Wireless Range Extender/Access Point (which is connected to Hub via RJ45 cable) running Windows 2000

I have a printer connected to the Hub and any PC can print at will.

Do I need to use ICS to get this to work? Or is there some setting in the router that I'm missing?

Hope I've included enough info. Thanks for any help you can provide!

Kim

update:
Also forgot that I'm using NIS 2004 on each PC.

[Variable]

It depends, if your ISDN line comes into your router and all PC's can connect to the router (which I assume they cannot, the hub is not a problem) then you can share the internet using the router. If only one PC can connect at a time routing is not functioning correctly.

The purpose of the router connected to the internet is that the router routes i.e. it has an internal side and external side. The external side is connected to the web, the internal side is the default gateway for the PC's and the router makes decisions one what traffic is appropriate ( It routes). In-between the internal and external sides is where the router does it's thing. If you want things to work simply, the router should assign the PC's their TCP/IP settings through DHCP. All other devices should simply pass traffic. The only thing doing NAT should be the router. I would read the router manual.. You should not need to do ICS when using a router, if the router can do NAT. ICS does NAT and DHCP. It sets the PC doing ICS up as a router. Which you don't need to do if you already have a router capable of doing these things. NAT simply takes the internal addresses and creates a table. It uses the table as a way of mapping internal addresses to one external address. It keeps track of who sent what and only allows traffic requested internally to be answered. It won't allow a unrequested packet in to the internal side. What is happening is that the first connected PC is getting the traffic and all other PC's packets are simply ignored. This is likely because they are not being NAT'd correctly. Your packets from all PC's may actually be going out the router. But, when they come back in the only PC the router has in its NAT list is the first PC connected and since this PC did not request the traffic - the inbound traffic is dropped. To you, it seems like it is not connected because the browser times out.

The hub you have is not your issue if it is a simple hub, it simply broadcasts all traffic, no matter what.


V

[kdrake1007]

The router can do NAT, but I've had problems with it assigning ip addresses. If I have the PC's set up to obtain IP's automatically, I get IP conflicts - the first PC gets 192.168.10.2 then the 2nd one gets the same address and the 1st gets "kicked off". DHCP has been enabled everytime I've tried it. So now I've got 2 of the 3 PC's with static ip addresses (192.168.10.4 and 192.168.10.6 respectively.) Since I'm using static addresses, will I have to set anything up for the NAT table on the router? I've seen something for Static Mapping in the router configuration, but I don't remember what section it was in. I don't have the user guide for the router at the moment, so I'll have to check it later. Thanks much!
Kim

[Variable]

DHCP works like this, a PC boot ups and it sends out a broadcast asking if any DHCP servers are out there. If there is the DHCP server will respond. The DHCP server will offer TCP/IP information, the PC can accept or reject it. Once it accepts it the PC fires off a packet saying it will only except DHCP info from router A and is accepting what Router A gave it. If you have them all set to DHCP and this is not happening then you have something blocking these packets OR you have two devices giving out DHCP information... I would also look first, at your DHCP configuration on your router.