Revisiting shared dialup internet access one last time...

[transco]

Sorry to bring this up again, but I've had zero success with this and would like to ask one last time if anyone's actually gotten this to work.

I've been trying to help a friend that depends on dialup internet access and would like to share this connection with his PDA. He has an AP on his desktop that serves as a WiFi-to-wired LAN bridge. He is able to do a wireless sync (ActiveSync) with no problem. He is able to share his desktop's Internet connection when the PDA is in its cradle, but we've found no way to share the connection wirlessly, nor have we found any way to set up a proxy that would allow the PDA to wirelessly share the desktop's modem. Has anyone actually done this? If so, I sure appreciate it if you would tell me step-by-step how to set up the PDA and desktop.

[transco]

Sorry to bring this up again, but I've had zero success with this and would like to ask one last time if anyone's actually gotten this to work.

I've been trying to help a friend that depends on dialup internet access and would like to share this connection with his PDA. He has an AP on his desktop that serves as a WiFi-to-wired LAN bridge. He is able to do a wireless sync (ActiveSync) with no problem. He is able to share his desktop's Internet connection when the PDA is in its cradle, but we've found no way to share the connection wirlessly, nor have we found any way to set up a proxy that would allow the PDA to wirelessly share the desktop's modem. Has anyone actually done this? If so, I sure appreciate it if you would tell me step-by-step how to set up the PDA and desktop.

[Hrun]

I gave up with the wifi adhoc connection in the end (although it works flawlessly with my desktop and laptop ) and went for a bluetooth connection which works flawlessly aas well.

HTH Giles

[gwinter]

I have read your other post. First let me recap the hardware configuration. The X3i is connected to the PC via an AP. The AP is connected to the desktop via Ethernet. The desktop has dial-up internet access which you want to share.

Let me start by saying that Activesync pass-through will NOT work when you do Wifi sync. That should be the job of a router. Of course, you don't have a hardware router. So the other option would be software routing, for example Internet Connection Sharing in WinXP.

The only problem might be that the AP has DHCP server. This will interfere with ICS' DHCP. Does the AP has it's own IP address which is different from the IP address of the desktop network card?

[transco]

Yes, the hardware is as you described. The AP has its own IP, but does not have a DHCP server. It is simply a dumb bridge with the normal WEP secuity routines (currently disabled). If you are talking about the ICS built into XP, I've tried that and it works with a wireless enabled laptop, but so far no luck with the X3i.

Thanks for confirming that ActiveSync Internet pass-through doesn't work with a WiFi link. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anything. At least I can close that door.

Originally Posted by gwinter

I have read your other post. First let me recap the hardware configuration. The X3i is connected to the PC via an AP. The AP is connected to the desktop via Ethernet. The desktop has dial-up internet access which you want to share.

Let me start by saying that Activesync pass-through will NOT work when you do Wifi sync. That should be the job of a router. Of course, you don't have a hardware router. So the other option would be software routing, for example Internet Connection Sharing in WinXP.

The only problem might be that the AP has DHCP server. This will interfere with ICS' DHCP. Does the AP has it's own IP address which is different from the IP address of the desktop network card?

[gwinter]

Do you connect to the AP bridge in infrastructure or adhoc mode? The X3i should be getting an IP adress from ICS on desktop in the range of 192.168.0.x. You said that wireless sync is ok, so perhaps it is only the connections configurations on PPC that need to be tweaked.

[transco]

Originally Posted by gwinter

Do you connect to the AP bridge in infrastructure or adhoc mode? The X3i should be getting an IP adress from ICS on desktop in the range of 192.168.0.x. You said that wireless sync is ok, so perhaps it is only the connections configurations on PPC that need to be tweaked.

Let me clarify... I have no problem here setting up a PC in AdHoc mode to share my DSL connection (I did this as a test using a PC with 2 NIC's). My problem is trying to do the same thing on my friends computer that uses dial-up Internet access. I searched Microsoft's web site and the only AdHoc examples I found were where Internet access was via an Ethernet connection to a DSL or Cable Modem router. The big question is, can it be done with dial-up. Have you actually done this?

One other alternative is to go the FreeSCO route if I can convince him to turn one of his old PC's into a dial-up router.

[gwinter]

I don't have a working dial-up networking to try everything out, but let me just tell you how far I've gone.

My PPC is connected to the desktop in adhoc mode using a USB WLAN adapter. I installed a modem and created an internet connection on the desktop, the connection is shared. With the appropriate config, I am able to sync with the desktop, and when I tried to access internet from my PPC, the desktop actually tried dialing out.

The only thing that might matter is that you are using a WLAN bridge while I am using a WLAN adapter. But it shows that you can share a dial-up networking with another connection that's labeled "LAN or High-Speed Internet" under WinXP. I am inclined to say what you are trying to do is possible.

[transco]

Originally Posted by gwinter

I don't have a working dial-up networking to try everything out, but let me just tell you how far I've gone.

My PPC is connected to the desktop in adhoc mode using a USB WLAN adapter. I installed a modem and created an internet connection on the desktop, the connection is shared. .

I don't have a dialup account, but would like to try as much of this as possible. When you say you "... created an internet connection on the desktop, the connection is shared." Please give me as much detail as possible on how you did this. I haven't used a dialup connection since Win 3.1, and can't remember a thing about setting up a dialup connection. I have a modem on my computer that I use for fax and would like to give this a try, but as far as I know there aren't any free internet accounts any more. What internet service did you use for your testing?

Thanks for all your help. I'm sure relieved to hear that it will work.

[gwinter]

As I said, I too do not have a dial-up account now. However during testing, the desktop attempted to dial out. And I have previously managed to share dial-up networking in another configuration that doesn't have WLAN.

Installing modem is just the usual add hardware affair. To add a new connection, I used the wizard. Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Communications -> New Connection Wizard. After that you should be able to share the connection by going to Network Connections page and open the Properties page of the newly created connection.

It is quite simple really. I do not think you will have much problem with it.

[transco]

Well I seem to be getting no where fast. I setup a modem network connection as you suggested. I tested it by bringing up a browser window on the host computer and sure enough, it attempted to dial out. I set up the internet connection sharing, specifying the wireless adapter as the connection to the local network (I used a laptop with an internal WiFi adapter). So far so good.

I then set up the WiFi adapter for Ad Hoc communications. ICS had already set its IP to 192.168.0.1. Next I set up the PDA for Ad Hoc communication with an IP 192.168.0.2 and gateway of 192.168.0.1. The PDA immediately linked to the laptop, again so far so good.

Lastly I tried bringing up the browser on the PDA and entered the IP of a known web site (didn't want to worry about DNS quite yet). Well it tried, but eventually timed out. The laptop never tried to dial out.

Any idea where I am going wrong?