How to Configure Internet Connection Sharing

With the internet connection sharing or ICS when computer is directly connected to the internet and then share the internet connection with many computers in your home or office network through the main computer where ICS is enabled. After configuring ICS each computer can browse send emails and perform other activities. For configuring an ICS connection in Windows XP professional or Windows 2000, two network connections are required one is for LAN and other for internet connection such as Dial up, Cable net, DSL or Cable modem. In the configurations, the LAN computers are giving the static IP addresses and other configurations.

For ICS discovery and control to work on the client computers such as Windows 98, run the network setup wizard from the Windows 98, Windows ME CD-ROMs and Internet explorer 5.0 must be installed on the client computers.

Configuring ICS on Windows XP Professional/Windows 2000

1. Log on to your computer with a local administrator account.
2. Start > control panel > double click network connections.
3. Click the connection you want to share such as dial up, DSL, cable net and then under Network Tasks click this option “change settings for this connection”.
4. On the Advanced tab go to Internet connection sharing and check this option “Select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.”
5. If you want that this connection to dial automatically then selects this option. “Establish a dialup connection whenever a computer on my Network Places attempts to access the internet.
6. If you want that the other network users can disable or enable the shared internet connection then check this option “Allows other users to control or enable the shared internet connection”.
7. In the Home Networking Connection, select any adapter that connects the computer sharing the internet connection to the other computers in your network. So there should be two NIC adapters should be installed in your computer for configuring ICS.

Client Computer Configurations

1. Open your browser such as Internet explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
2. In the internet connection go to the tools menu then click internet options.
3. On the connection tab click “never dial a connection and then go the LAN settings.
4. In Automatic configuration clear these options 1. Automatic detect settings and use automatic configuration scripts.
5. Next in the proxy server, clear the use of the proxy server option.
6. That’s all.

How to Convert FAT into NTFS

NTFS stands for New Technology Files system and it provides many great features such as advanced security, disk quota, sharing and others in the Windows based operating systems.

1. Start > Run > type cmd
2. On the command promote type this command CONVERT [drive letter]: /FS:NTFS.
3. This command will convert your selected partition into the NTFS file system and the conversion process completes when you restart the computer. Please note that NTFS requires some additional disk space. There are chances that your disk can be corrupted when performing NTFS operation so take a full system backup data before you start NTFS conversion.

How to change the Drive Letters

To change your disks drive letters to some other names, which you like you have to do the following steps.

1. Click start > Control Panel > Admin Tools > Double click computer management
2. Click disk management
3. Right Click on the drive letter you want to change in the white space area.
4. Click drive letters and path option.
5. Here you can change, remove and add drive letters and paths.

How to Enable/Disable Firewall

Windows XP comes with the built in firewall features and if you want to enable or disable it, perform the following steps.

1. Click start > Control Panel > double click Network Connections icons.
2. Right click on the LAN/WAN or network connections on which you want to enable the firewall.
3. Click on properties > Advanced > Settings.
4. Turn on or Turn off the firewall according to your choice.

How to Enable Netmeeting ?

Netmeeting is built-in utility in Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000. You can communication with your friends online and can have live video and audio chats. By default it is not activated so perform the following tasks to activate it.

1. Start > Run and type “conf” without the quotes.
2. That’s it. Now you can connect to your family and friends online.

How to join a network in Windows XP?

You can join a Windows XP/Professional 2000 computer in network by two different methods. First is workgroup and second is domain. If you want to join your computer in workgroup then you don’t need any special administrative authority and privileges and for joining a computer in a domain you must have administrative rights.

Following are the some basic steps for joining in the workgroup.

1. IP Address: You must assign a unique IP address of the same class to your computer and for this go to start > control panel > Double click network connections > Right click on the Local Area Network icon and go to properties.
2. In the general tab go to TCP/IP and then properties and select this option “Use the following IP address. If don’t know about the IP addresses in detail you can simply fill the IP address box with these simple IP addresses 1.1.1.1, 1.1.1.2, 1.1.1.3, 1.1.1.4, 1.1.1.5, 1.1.1.6 and so on. Each IP address is for each computer and when you go the tab of the Subnet Mask, it will be automatically detected. Press ok and also check this option “Show Icon in the notification area when connected”. Click ok.
3. Computer Name: Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop > Properties > Computer name > Change and set a unique computer name.
4. Workgroup Name: Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop > Properties > Computer name > Change and set a same workgroup name e.g. Myworkgroup for all the computers in your workgroup.
5. Network Cables Connectivity: Before network connectivity starts, make sure that you have plugged the network cables properly, one end of the cable in the system’s LAN card and one in the HUB/Switch and also NIC drivers should be properly installed all the network computers.