Internet connection sharing is the act of connecting two or more computers, either wired through Local Area Network (LAN) cables or through wireless means, with the purpose of having all the connected computers use a single internet connection to access the internet.

In Local Area Networking, the computer that is directly connected to the Internet is called the gateway computer. The gateway computer is connected to the Internet by a modem. All other computers on the network accessing the Internet does not communicate directly to the modem but instead communicate to the gateway computer. The gateway computer is the sole computer that has the exclusive connection to the modem.

In cases where a router is used to share the internet connection, the router serves as the gateway device. The router is connected to the modem and all other computers would commucate with the router.

There are two ways of implementing internet connection sharing.  One is by using a hub or a switch. All the computers will be connected to the switch to form a Local Area Network. Being connected into a LAN means that these computers will be assigned a workgroup name and also subnet IP address. The computer with a connection to the internet will then become a gateway, that is, all internet access from and into the other computers will come from this computer. This kind of internet sharing is a service called Internet Connection Sharing or ICS in Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Another way of sharing the internet connection is by the use of a router. A router is an equipment similar to a hub or a switch but it could be configured to serve as a gateway to the internet, hence, the ability to share the internet connection.

This hub is about the first method, the ICS service of the Windows XP. I will write another hub later about the other method that uses a router.

Windows XP has a built-in service called ICS, or Internet Connection Sharing. Prior to Windows XP, internet connection sharing was implemented by the use of a third party software like Wingate. The capability to share the internet connection was integrated into Microsoft Operating System in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The idea behind ICS is to connect one PC (Personal Computer) to the internet through a modem, and the other PCs connect to the internet through this PC via the LAN (Local Area Network).

Requirements:

1. A computer with an existing internet connection.

2. A hub or a switch to connect the other PCs to each other to form a local area network (LAN).

3. LAN card for each and every computer.

4. LAN cables.

HOW DOES IT WORK

When you run the Internet Connection Sharing wizard on the computer with an internet connection, its sets up the LAN adapter to have a TCP IP address of 192.168.0.1. This is an IP address reserved specifically for use as a private address. Additionally, the wizard set default gateway address to point to the address of the existing internet connect. In this way, if a computer on the network tries to access the internet, it will send the request to proper address.

After running the Internet Connection Sharing wizard on the computer with an internet connection, you need to do the same on the other computers on the network. In these computers, the wizard will set the IP address to the same subnet as the computer with internet access. For example, the first computer on the network will be assigned 192.168.0.3. Then the next computer will be 192.168.0.4. And again, on the next computer it would be 192.168.0.5. And so on. The wizard will also set the default gateway of the LAN adapter to 192.168.0.1, which is the address of the computer an internet connection.

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