Networking laptop with another computer and a cable internet connection

I am attempting to connect a PC with a laptop computer. I have a one-way cable internet connection on the PC. The PC has Win ME and the laptop has Win 98. I have an Ethernet card in each computer. The two computers are connected through an RJ45 connector. I used the networking wizard on each computer but am unable to connect.

When I enable ICS on the PC, I cannot connect to the Internet, even if the laptop is not connected to the PC.

The computers aren't communicating with one another.

Help! Does anyone have any advice?
Do I need a router to connect these two computers?
Please advise as to the correct network wizard settings that are necessary for each computer to talk to each other
Thank you!
:mad:

The easiest way would be to add a second network card to your ME box. Use the existing Nic for your internet connection, and use the second for your internal network connection.

You say the 2 machines are connected through an RJ45 connector. Do you mean that you connected them NIC to NIC? Or are you using a hub? If you went NIC to NIC you would have to use a crossover cable, did you do that? Also, to use ICS, you will need 2 NICs in the machine connected to the cable modem. Easiest way to do what you want to is install a second NIC in the ME machine. Be careful not to get the 2 NICs confused with each other. Use One NIC for your connection to the cable modem, and the other to share the internet connection. Go purchase a CAT 5 crossover cable and use it to connect the second NIC in the ME machine to the NIC in the Win 9x Laptop. Or you can get a hub and connect the second NIC from the ME machine and the Win 9x laptop to it (no croosover cable needed, the hub takes care of it). Then set up the ICS. Hope this helps. :)

As stated by MelMac - without using a switchor hub, just connecting machine to machine you need a crossover cable - it directs the recieve on one machine to the transmit on the other and visa-versa.

Thanks for the advice. I have since discovered that I didn't have a crossover cable. I have purchased one. I still have two questions:

1. I am unsure why I need two network cards in the host computer. I have an internal cable modem. Please explain.

2. If I have nothing connected but have Windows IE set up to share a computer, why can't I access the internet? I can connect but can't access the internet or my e-mail. Will this problem go away when I install the second Ethernet card?

Thank you very much for your help. As you can see, I'm new at this.

Clubnev, you must have 2 NICs in the host computer because one will maintain the internet connection, and the other will "pipe" it out to the other computers. You can not plug the cable modem directly into the hub. Do you have a hub? If not, how are you managing to connect the ME computer to both the cable modem and the laptop at the same time? Is the cable modem one of the new breed which uses USB instead of a CAT 5 patch and NIC to connect to the host machine? Explain the actual physical layout you were attempting so we can troubleshoot it for you. As for your second question, once this is set up right you will be able to share files, access the internet, check e-mail, whatever you want, from both machines. The only problem areas that come to mind are some gaming issues due to one IP address being presented to the remote server, so it may be difficult to get both machines to game simultaneously, but I am sure someone has a work around for that. Also, you may consider a hardware solution like a Cable/DSL router, there is plenty of info on this forum about them. Again, give us your actual physical layout, and we'll get you up and running. :)

I'm sorry for the confusion. Here is my set up. I have an internal cable modem provided to me by the cable company. I have one-way cable - meaning that I dial through a modem to connect to the internet. I can download through the cable but I upload through the phone line. My cable plugs into the modem with a standard cable (just like plugging a cable into your TV). I have an ethernet card in both the laptop and the host computer. I thought I could connect the two ethernet cards with a crossover cable and network the two that way. Can I do that?

If I need a router, would I also need two Ethernet cards in the host computer?

As for the Internet Explorer set up, if I have nothing connected but I change the set up to ICS, I cannot connect to the internet.

Thank you very much for your help.

Your hardware is exactly how it should be - you have an internal cable modem and an analog modem for your internet access and an ethernet connection with a crossover cable for networking the two machines.

In theory all you SHOULD need to do is set the machine with the cable modem up as the ICS server and set the laptop to tcp/ip via. dhcp - then when you connect on the host (the machine with the cable modem) the client (laptop) should be able to access the internet. Unfortunately I have no experience with one-way cable and am not familiar enough with it to offer the definitave solution. I can however reccommend www.dlsreports.com for more information.

clubnev:
unfortunately you may have more than 4 network adapters. Windows allows by default only four bindings of TCP/IP to network adapters. Thus if you have 1. Cable modem 2. dial-up adapter 3. home network NIC 4. ICS TCP/IP, you will need a NAT program like Wingate@ Winproxy, Sambar server or the like. Blame Bill Gates.

I am not familiar with one way cable, never had an encounter with it. Our provider here goes both upstream and downstrean. I can tell you that in this type on environmet there is no need for 2 NICs in any of the machines, becuse the cable/DSL router fills the role of the proxy and DHCP servers. But I personally have no working knowledge of the analog upload's setup so I will not attempt to seem smarter than I am and waste your time with incorrect information. I am sure there are plenty of techs here that can help you though. :)

The configuration is what is should be. However, I tried using ICS on Me before and I failed miserably. It worked some times, and most of the time it did not work. Some sites would come up, but most would not. So I had to go and use a router, but you don't have that option. Win98 provides a much better ICS then ME. Can you ping the host computer after setting up ICS? Can you at least browse from one computer to the other? As in Network Neighborhood browse, not Internet. If you can that's a step in the right direction. It also depends on how you initiate the connection on the host. Since its one way then you must dial up somehow, is that how the host considers it's online? Unfortunately I'm not familiar with one way cable modems. Hope this helps.