Sometimes on yachts I’ve used Windows ICS - Internet Connection Sharing to share and existing Fast Internet Connection (such as a WiFi Antenna or Cellular 3G Card) as it was an inexpensive way to share such Internet Connections onto an onboard network.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Connection_Sharing

for this discussion…

I stopped using that and recommending it a couple of years ago because I noticed a bug in Windows XP and Media Center Editions … the connection would stop sharing (e.g. computers onboard could no longer seem to go to web sites, although the sharing computer still could!) So we had the famous “wiggle” of taking the sharing back off, rebooting the computer, and turning the sharing back on. Anyway it’s not the best way to run a network on a yacht… so I had pretty much stopped using it.

In particular, my troubleshooting showed that the connection was actually still shared - but - DNS resolution was no longer being proxied by the Sharing Computer. (See DNS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System)

I never was able to get an answer from Microsoft or anyone as to how to resolve the problem. Interestingly it seems that recently such a bug has been attributed to Windows XP Service Pack 3. (I think it was occurring on Service Pack 2 as well!)

* The Wikipedia Article on Connection sharing has the following notation:

Windows XP SP3 Bug
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) introduces a bug in ICS that requires restarting the ICS Windows service after several events, including disconnecting the network cable from the ICS machine.

In Microsoft support article KB951446, the process of restarting the ICS service is explained, but there is no mention of a plan to fix this bug in the future[1].
In later Microsoft support article KB951830, more details and a hotfix (Update for Windows XP (KB951830)) are given.[2][3] This hotfix is not currently being distributed via Windows Update, and so it must be manually installed.

* And the Microsoft page:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3262D5BE-EB48-4FB1-AB4A-AF9F22F40166&displaylang=en

has the following notation:

Brief Description
Install this update to resolve the issue in which a client cannot resolve DNS after the network adapter is connectoed/disconnected or disabled/enabled, on a system running Windows XP Service Pack 3.

* Hmmmmm? That sure sounds like my good old ICS bug. I wonder if that really fixes it?

—
Alan Spicer
Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanspicer

http://www.marinetelecom.net/
http://www.wifiyacht.net/

+1 954-683-3426

http://www.marinetelecom.net/yachts-miami/

Around 20 yachts in the Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show - are sending out AIS information as can be seen on http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

So you can see a few of the yacht names that are moored there at the show.

—
Alan Spicer
Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanspicer

http://www.marinetelecom.net/
http://www.wifiyacht.net/

+1 954-683-3426