5punk

I have one of these Vodafone USB internet dongles plugged into my machine. It works fine.

I have a LAN running, 3 other machines connected using my Bebox as a router. That works fine too.

Now I want to share the internet connection provided by the usb dongle so the other machines can access t'internet. I figured there are 2 options: ICS or bridging...

Bridging?! Yes, because the Vodafone dongle for some bizarre reason identifies itself as a NIC, so bridging my machine's LAN connection and the dongle should, in theory, work. It doesn't. I think all the other machines get stuck at the BeBox expecting to find a DSL connection and don't look any further.

Maybe the BeBox is the issue, and I should use a regular router without a modem, which I could do but... :effort:

Any other ideas?

Can the machines ping each other?

I'd guess you need to use a proper switch and dump the bebox for now.

Or at least disable all the routing and DHCP on it. might possibly be useful

Using the BeBox as a bridge is possible, you might be better off with just a cheap switch, but I don't think it's the problem - it seems to be working okay as a switch now.

Windows bridging (which it does automatically when detecting two network adapters) is only meant to connect two LAN segments and won't work when one adapter is connected to an external DSL or modem (which your Voda donger is). You'll have use ICS. http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu ... x?mfr=true

Just select the external connection's properties in network properties and choose sharing. You can't share wireless connections, but the Voda donger is acting as a modem/NIC so it should be okay.

both of the above. Don't bother with bridges.

i) switch off DHCP on the BeBox - it will then just be a switch (unless you have a route or your default gateway pointing to it)
ii) Enable ICS on the Vodafone dongle. This will set your other NIC to 192.168.0.1 (IIRC) and act as a DHCP server and default gateway for the other PC's on the network.

Ah cool, turning off DHCP on the BeBox could be the answer. Atm every time I enable my LAN NIC the USB dongle disconnects and then the machine refuses to use it and tries to find the internets via the Bebox. I guess making the dongle the DHCP server should sort it.