Internet Connection Sharing Blues

[Trentham]

Actually the host is XP Home but I'm having problem with the reliability of ICS.

The host has been set up and connects quite happily via Broadband (BTconnect). I *did* have the other machines on the small network (1xXP Home, 2xWin2000Pro) connecting OK, although never completely solidly; they seemed to cause the host to fail.

Now I get a host failure whenever I try to use the internet from a client machine.

The failure message is "Generic host process for Win32 services has encountered and error and needs to close". Following that, the connection lo longer works. It want to readial it but reports it as connected, although can’t disconnect.

1. The are no viruses present anywhere on the network (certainly not blaster!)
2. All details provided most places as to how to set up the connection have been followed.
3. I've tried setting the host to connect if needed and also not to do this.
4. I've run out of ideas!

Is my problem the fact that I'm using Micro$oft's product or has anyone any other ideas?

…OOPS! I’ve just got that error message without trying to use a client machine, although they are all turned on!

 

[bcastner]

It does not sound as if you are patched for msblast.

 

[Trentham]

Certainly am! Not only is the patch installed, there are a number of other measures which shows it to be clean.

Maybe there's something somewhere else on the network.

 

[Trentham]

Well I've ditched Microsoft to solve this. I'm using static IP addresses and Analogx Proxyi. The whole system's been running OK now for a while with all machines accessing the internet and everything.

It's a perfectly adequate solution for what I need.

I've got a feeling which has been growing throughout this whole episode that the problems were coming from the DHCP/DNS setup. Nice to have, perhaps but not really necessary for a 4 computer network.