I highly recommend some mental/emotional preparation before embarking on this journey. A nice, long, intensive Ashtanga Yoga session is highly advisable. I started working on this about 8pm. I thought it would take a few minutes and then I would be done. Not a chance, Jack!
I was up all night fighting with it. When I say all night, I mean until 1 a.m. That is 5 hours for the mathmatically challenged. Let me point out, however, that at the end of that 5 hours, I hit the reset button on the router and carefully returned everything to the way it was when I started (straight-out-of-the-box defaults). So it was indeed a wasted 5 hours.
The last thing I did before falling into bed was to bid on and win an ethernet DSL modem on Ebay. $18.56 - including shipping! Hopefully, it'll show up. I think that is the best solution overall. If you divide just that wasted 5 hours into $18.56, I payed myself less than $4/hr to do something completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, I am a stubborn s.o.b. and must succeed regardless of the cost. ...adn succeed I did. Now that it works, I'll be getting a new modem in about a week.
Here is the procedure. Be patient and calm and don't freak out. Some details may require a few hard power downs just to work themselves out.
Now that its over, I understand the cause of the failure. My router was set up from the factory with 192.168.15.1. This prevented my client computers from seeing the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) host at 192.168.0.1 (The address that windows assigns to the ICS host). It is necessary to have the router, host and all clients configured with an ip address in the same subnet range. With the default class C subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, this allows xxx.xxx.xxx.[0 - 254]. If our ICS defaults to 192.168.0.1, then the default router ip address of 192.168.15.1 (which will assign 192.168.15.[100-150] to network clients) won't allow the ICS host to be accessable from the network. We need to change something so we'll change what we can - the router.
Disable your wireless if you can. The purpose is to remove the number of uncertainties and potential causes for failure. Until you can connect the old fashioned way, d.b.a.d (like I was), leave the wireless off.
Plug your connection host (the one that connects to the internet through the modem) and one client into one of the four ethernet ports (not the internet port) of the router/hub.
You should be able to bring up the router config page by opening your browser and entering http://192.168.15.1 (check your documentation to verify this ip address). If you can't, go sto start --> Connect To --> Right click your dsl connection --> properties (or otherwise get to the properties of your dial up connection). Make note of your user id and make sure you know your password. Also jot down the exact name of the connection in case some application automatically dials it to connect, they usually call it by its physical name. Now, delete your dial-up (DSL) internet connection. You should be able to tell the browser to never dial when a connection is not present but you can be sure if you delete it. Bring up Command Prompt: Start --> Run --> Cmd. Then "ipconfig /release" then "ipconfig /refresh". Then ipconfig and see if you have an address in the same range as your router. If not, You may need to reboot to get a valid ip address.
Change the ip address on the main page to 192.168.0.[something between (2 and 99) or (200 and 254)]. I ended up using [192.168.0.2]. Originally I tried [192.168.0.254] but had no success. However, I believe it would have worked if I'd followed the next steps carefully.
Turn everything physically off. Re-boot is not enough! Shut down your computers then unplug your router. Proceed to the next step...
Do something that will take about fifteen minutes. Five is enough but this is a good time to relax. You might be in for a little bit of rough weather.
First Router, wait for the lights to stop flashing. Next, ICS Host. Next, Client computer.
try to ping your host. using ipconfig "Start >> run >> cmd >> ipconfig", find your host ipaddress. From your client, bring up command (see above), try to ping "ping [ip address of host]". If ping replies 4 times, keep going. Otherwise, try the power down and back up again. If still no luck, you may have a-typical tcp settings and are going to be outside the scope of this procedure (so sorry). pinging?! sweet, go on...
Share you connection on your ICS Host. If you deleted this connection, now is the time to create a new one just like the old one. Enable sharing. check ipconfig, if you like, to see that your host is now 192.168.0.1
try to ping from your client to your host again. Still pinging?
Here goes: try to connect to the internet from your host. Open your browser. Good? If not, check your connection properties under "Internet Opetions" Connections, LAN Setting. There should be no connections listed above LAN Settings and your LAN Settings themselves should all be unchecked.
I hope you can connect, if not, try the hard power down and start up again (proper sequence, as always)
If you are having issues at this point, shut it down and leave it for while. This is the point where I ebayed a new ethernet modem. In the morning, I did exactly what I am describing (except I didn't bother with any pinging) and it worked.
bring up your router config page. You should not have to disconnect your internet connection, anymore! Go to the wireless tab and change the SSID to something like "FlyDaddyWAN" or "Home-Office" (or something that will help you distinguish it from your neighbor's wireless network.
See if you can connect you wireless pc via the wireless network. Bring up avaiable connections. Look for your SSID there. If its not there, it may not be broadcasting. You can enable it in the router config page. However, try to connect manually by manually entering the SSID.
If you see "connected", try to ping. Also check your network neighborhood and your internet connection. If all these work, you're in great shape.
If your network neighborhood is working but no internet, make sure you have ICS enabled (connection on host is shared). On your wireless client, try "ipconfig /all". Your default gateway should be 192.168.0.1. If it isn't, power down and back up in sequence again.
If your network neighborhood does not work but you have internet, You need to check the ipaddresses of each computer and the router and ensure they are in the same subnet. It is also prudent to power down and back up in sequence again.
If anything has failed so far, go back. Keep it simple. Otherwise, go to the wireless tab of your router config page and click security. Enable WEP encryption. Enter some text in the key gen field and click generate. Copy one of the resulting keys and set that up on your wireless client.
Show avaailable wireless connections on your wireless client. Find the one you set up and it should now show as "WEP enabled". Double click and you will be prompted for a key. Enter the key from your Router config.
Nothing should have changed from pre-secure wireless (except that now it is secure)
If so, power down and back up in sequence again.
..or anything that makes you feel an equal sense of accomplishment!
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