hotshot

Hi All,

I am trying to share a broadband internet connection from my destop computer to my laptop. I have set up a small network and am using a cross-over cable. I have AOL and as you mioght know it uses its own browser. I can see the 1mb connection on my laptop but when i try to connect to internet (using AOL browser) it searches for TC/IP freezes at this point then comes up with a connection failure message stating that AOL has detected a firewall, which is rubbish cause i disabled all firewalls and attempted. Does anyone know of any issues with AOL and internet connection sharing?

heartbomb

I would personally get a router and be done with it. as you would have to leave the PC with the connection on all of the time.

You choices are :

A) get a router

B) use ICS

hotshot

Souds like that is the best option, a little advise, stay away from aol, an absolute con on the sharing side of it. AOL is only designed for NetGear products, which happen to be the most expensive.

heartbomb

GeeUnit,
FYI, the AOL browser is a customized version of Internet Explorer, no more no less. Was this the AOL9-SE (Security Edition) disk you were trying to share? If I remember correctly it has McAfee AV/firewall included and that could be the firewall you ran into.
The brand of router has nothing to do with sharing AOL vs any other, at least since AOL 6.

hotshot

This is just factually wrong. This cannot be done.

heartbomb

I would recommend using a router. Your router would then connect to the AOL, your isp and manage that internet connection between you PC and laptop by giving its own IP address.
You can also try to use a switch and have each desktop and Laptop get an IP address directly from AOL, but this might be limited by your ISP or may charge extra for that

hotshot

Erik,

I have several clients with AOL broadband and a router. The router holds the AOL screen name and password. The AOL software is NOT required.....

heartbomb

Normally that would work, but as I already mentioned it is not the case with AOL. AOL requires that the special software be installed on each computer. Then in order to connect you would need each computer to 'dial in' using the software before you are actually connected to the internet.

hotshot

You still have to log onto their service, you just tell the login interface to use Cable/LAN instead of dialup if using the software. You can also use their aol.com site to access AOLmail, etc without the software.

heartbomb

I guess they changed things since I last had to use AOL. I was stuk on AOHell Broadband when it first was available from them, and you still needed to login each time and dial up like with a typical dialup service.