3G Modem, ICS, DIR-655, help!

[Bandalo]

I just moved overseas, and was told it could take 3-4 months to get an ADSL connection into my home. I'm trying to work a temporary solution for my machines until then.

Here's what I have: A Vodafone 3G modem pay-as-you-go, a D-Link DIR-655 router, an 8 port switch, 2 desktop PCs, 1 WHS box, and 2 laptops.

How do I share the 3G connection across the network? Vodafone doesn't seem to be in the supported list of 3G modems from D-link, so that option doesn't seem to work. I tried installing the modem into one machine, and using Vista's ICS feature, and all I get is IP address errors. The computer with the modem attached works great, but no other comptuers can access the internet.

I know ICS is CPU intensive, and fairly slow, but I just need something that will work OK for basic web browsing and e-mail until my ADSL is installed.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to make this work?

 

[thiggins]

The 3G modem WAN feature on D-Link routers doesn't support a very wide range of modems. If yours isn't on the list, you can't make it work.

ICS should work. Sounds like you may not be setting it up correctly. You also should not have the router connected if you're trying to use ICS, since its DHCP server could cause problems.

You would need to provide more details on your ICS setup and the errors that you are getting if you want more detailed help.

 

[Bandalo]

Thanks for the reply!

I figured the 3G modem feature wouldn't work. That would be too easy.

So you think I should skip the router, and just use the switch? Static IPs and DNS settings on all the machines?

What I tried so far was just 2 PCs and the home server connected to the router's LAN ports. All the computers were visible to each other and from the router. Then I used the USB modem on one of the PCs, and set up Vista ICS for the connection with the default settings. When I actually connect with the modem, it gives me "IP address already exists on this network" errors, and the PC with the modem drops off the LAN. It will still connect to the internet directly though. I think the ICS is reassigning the IP address, but I don't know enough about how Vista's ICS features work to find an answer...

 

[thiggins]

Sounds like you have two DHCP servers, i.e. the DIR-655 and ICS. Remove the router and just use your switch.

 

[Bandalo]

Found some good info on Vista ICS. Apparenlty it runs it's own little DHCP server when you enable it, set to 192.168.0.1/24, which was conflicting with my DIR-655's internal DHCP server. Also, it doesn't pass DNS server information along.

So, to fix this, I install the modem on one computer that has 2 LAN ports. Installed one port into the WAN interface on the DIR-655, and the other into the LAN port. (since the computer with the modem needs to be on the internet and my internal LAN to be able to access my server and printer)

Set the router to use 10.0.0.1, and the router's DHCP range to 10.0.0.1/24. Then manually put the Vodafone's DNS entries into the WAN settings on the DIR-655.

The router grabs the ICS connection as the DHCP WAN connection, and all the rest of the computers run behind it like they did with my old cable modem. Plus, now I can use all my wireless stuff if I need to.

It's slow, and it's not pretty, but I think it'll work for the next month or two!