Internet Connection Sharing - Connecting 2 computers to share internet

Question

PROBLEM

I am trying to share internet via "Internet Connection Sharing" between my desktop and laptop, where my laptop is connected to internet via wireless.

After getting some help from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126, I tried this... but I get an error:

Internet connection sharing cannot be enabled. A LAN connection is already configured with the IP Address that is required for automatic IP addressing.

Further reading on this error... I discovered that ICS tries to allocate 192.168.0.1 to my laptop and when it finds that this address is already being used by some other network adapter like 'Ethernet' it throws this error.

However... the IP allocated of my laptop is "192.168.0.17" and there is no network address for 'Ethernet' since it is only connected to my desktop computer

But...yes my router has an address of "198.168.0.1"... which I cannot change as I have no access to it?

QUESTION

How can I get this problem solved? How can I get to share internet between my laptop and desktop? For help I have printed the output of my ipconfig:

Windows IP Configuration

    Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : BLUE-C2815DD6EE
    Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
    Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
    IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
    WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8:

    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.235.1
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:

    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.157.1
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1B-24-17-61-68
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.105.30
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-D2-90-E6-1D
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.17
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
    DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
    DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 211.31.138.11
                                        211.29.132.12
                                        198.142.0.51
    Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, May 07, 2011 1:43:26 PM
    Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, May 07, 2011 2:43:26 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\J>

Answer 1

It's not a fix to the ICS problem (ICS always tries to use the 192.168.0.0/24 network, if I recall correctly), but it may help you with your goal (connect both computers to the Internet):

• disable the connection sharing at your laptop
• create a network bridge on the laptop, containing your wifi interface and the ethernet one.

What the bridge does here: it makes the desktop's network traffic appear on the wireless network (using the laptop's wireless interface), as if the desktop was also connected through the wireless.

This way, your router should see requests for IP address ("DHCP requests") from both your laptop and desktop. Unless the router is specifically configured to deny such scenario (not likely), it will give out an IP address to the notebook, and another to the desktop, and you should be able to access the Internet from both.

Of course, this will only work when the laptop's wireless is connected to the router's AP.