Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) enables a computer connected to the Internet via a cable or DSL modem to share its connection with other computers connected to it. It is cheap because of its minimal hardware requirements and fairly straight forward to set up. However it is only suitable for situations with limited requirements.

Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing is software built into Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Windows 98 ME, Windows XP and Windows 2000 that acts as a proxy server. ICS enables a computer connected to the Internet via a cable or DSL modem to share its connection with other computers connected to it via Ethernet cable.

The network can be set up in two ways, depending on the number of computers that need to share the connection.

• For two computers only

  When only one other computer needs to share this connection (as in Figure 1), then Computer #2 can connect directly to Computer #1 using a crossover cable. Note that both computers must have network cards installed. Click here for hardware requirements.

  
  Figure 1 Using Microsoft ICS with two computers
• For three or more computers

  When more than one other computer needs to share the connection with Computer #1 then you need to use a switch (or hub) (Figure 2). This time the computers are all connected to the switch using standard Ethernet cable. Click here for hardware requirements

  
  Figure 2 Using Microsoft ICS with more than two computers

• Pros
  • It's free. ICS comes as standard with both Windows XP and Windows 2000. It is fairly simple to set up. Minimal additional hardware is required, so it is quite a cheap solution.
• Cons
  • The gateway computer (Computer #1) must be turned on for the other computers to use its connection. If Computer #1 breaks, then so does the internet connection for the other computers.
  • ICS does not support certain applications such as MSN Messenger and NetMeeting.
  • ICS has no support for content filtering and logging.
  • There is an additional load on Computer #1, this may have a perform
  ance impact.