How To: Share Internet Connection Between Windows Vista and XP Computers
You have a Windows Vista computer that’s connected to the broadband internet via a ADSL modem or router.This article on Windows Vista network tweaks helps you how to share your Windows Vista computer’s broadband internet connection (turning first computer into a router) with a Windows XP computer which is connected to the first computer, in your house or office without using additional network router’s or even a network switch in some cases.Also you might be interested in sharing the single broadband internet connection between the two computers rather than using separate internet connections for each computer, which is quite costly.
For the internet connection sharing we want two computers A and B. The first computer, A runs on Windows Vista and the second computer, B runs on Windows XP.Computer A is connected to the broadband Internet through a router, so this computer will need an additional LAN card. Now to connect the computer B, you will need the additional LAN card in computer A or if you want to share internet to more than one computer, you will need a wired hub.
Here is the procedure to connect two systems in LAN in order to share a common internet connection:
- In Windows Vista computer A, before doing this procedures you should enable Sharing and Discovery. You can do that by going to the Vista Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center. Under the section ‘Sharing and Discovery , enable the option Network discovery, File Sharing, Public folder sharing and others if you want to.
- If your LAN card that is connecting to the Windows XP computer is installed, it will be shown under Control Panel -> Network Connections.
- Right click that local area connection icon and from the opened context menu click on properties.
- Under the tab ‘Networking’, click the properties Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) .
- Click the radio button to ‘Use the following IP’ and give a valid IP address (For example, IP address: 192.168.1.1 and Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0).Click Ok and close all the opened windows.
- In Windows XP computer B, make sure you enable the LAN card which is used to connect to Windows Vista computer A. Here you need not give any IP information as in the Computer A will assign an IP address dynamically. If it is not working make sure there are no IP assigned and change the properties to ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’.
- Test the internet connection in computers by pinging.You can do ping by typing ping 192.168.1.1 in the command prompt window.
To enable the sharing of internet connection:
- Right click on the LAN card which is connected to the broadband Internet under Windows Vista Control Panel -> Network Connections and click on the ‘Sharing’ tab and enable both the options to share Internet.
- Click Ok and close all the opened windows.
Important:Note that if you turn off the main computer connected to the broadband modem, all of the other computers connected to it will lose their internet connections as well.
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Written by Tony on January 10th, 2009 with
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