Using PC Windows to let Amiga access Wireless Internet

[tygre]

Hi all!

Happy New Year!

I have plugged my Amiga 1200 to a PC under Windows using a PCMCIA network adapter. The PC and Amiga can discuss, for example I can FTP files between the two back and forth. The PC has also a wireless card with which it can access the Internet.


Now, what would be really neat is that the Amiga could use the PC as "router" to itself access the Internet (using the PC wireless connection) and be accessed from the Internet.

I look for different means to transform the PC into a router. The most promising seems NAT32 (nat32.com) but I wasn't able to configure it properly and the Amiga still cannot access/be accessed from the Internet.

Any thoughts? Does anyone tried to do/succeeded in doing something similar?

Take care!
Yann

[Amiga1992]

Windows XP has tools to share its internet connection through the network, you should read up on its help files or try this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126

You didn't specify what OS you are running so I assumed the most common answer.

[tygre]

Thanks Akira! My apologies for the lack of details: I am running Windows 2000 and I cannot use ICS because the IP 192.168.0.x is already taken by the wireless connection.

Actually, after a day of investigation and reading, I think that I have something working. I will confirm with you and share my settings soon! Right now, on my way to install Apache on my Amiga, I got a checksum error

Take care,
Yann

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by tygre

I cannot use ICS because the IP 192.168.0.x is already taken by the wireless connection.

Uhm, you can specify different network addresses so your internal network does not interfere with this. Try 10.0.0.X

[tygre]

Here are some steps to use a PC under Windows 2000 as a wireless "bridge" for an Amiga 1200 to access the Internet through a wireless router.



Hardware
---------

A PC under Windows 2000, with two network interfaces:
- A wireless network card, used to access some wireless router.
- A wired network card, used to connect the Amiga.

An Amiga 1200 with one wired network interface, in my case a PCMCIA adaptor.

The Amiga and PC wired network cards are connected together.



Software Installation
--------------------

On the PC under Windows 2000, I installed NAT32 (see www.nat32.com). I also installed VNC v3.3.3r2 (x86, win32, available upon request).

On the Amiga, I installed the libraries required by the wired network card as well as Miami v3.2. I also installed AmiVNC 1.0.0 (see http://aminet.net/package/comm/tcp/AmiVNC) for remote controlling the Amiga. I also installed Voyager 3.2 for accessing the Internet.



TCP/IP Configuration
--------------------

(Please not that the names of the fields may differ a bit on your computers because I am translating them from the French versions of Windows 2000 and AmigaOS.)

On the PC under Windows 2000, the TCP/IP stack of the wireless network card is configured as:
- IP address: 192.168.0.50
- Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
- Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1
- Preferred DNS Server: 192.168.0.1
No changes to the other tabs of the configuration applet.

On the PC under Windows 2000, the TCP/IP stack of the wired network card is configured as:
- IP address: 10.10.10.1
- Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
- Default Gateway: <none, i.e., empty field>
- Preferred DNS Server: <the DNS servers of your ISP, e.g., 216.252.x.y>
- Secondary DNS Server: <the DNS servers of your ISP, e.g., 216.252.x.z>
No changes to the other tabs of the configuration applet.

On the Amiga, the Miami TCP/IP stack of the wired network card is configured as:
- Type Interface: SANA-II Ethernet
- Device: DEVS:Network/cnet.device
- Type IP: Static
- Address IP: 10.10.10.2
- Type Netmask: Static
- Netmask: 255.255.255.0
- Type Gateway: Static
- Gateway: 10.10.10.100 <Don't be surprised, this is where the "magic" happens>

At this point, under Windows 2000, you should be able to ping the Amiga at 10.10.10.1 and 10.10.10.2, and under the Amiga, you should be able to ping the PC at 10.10.10.2. However, the Amiga cannot yet access the Internet.



NAT32 Configuration
-------------------

The "magic" happens thanks to NAT32:
- Install and run NAT32 setup.
- Choose the wireless network card as "Internet" in the "Connection Type" section.
- Choose the wired network card as "Private" in the Connection Type" section.
- Let NAT32 finds and specifies the other values, just click "Apply" repeatedly.

The NAT32 Console opens and you notice that its title starts with "10.10.10.100". This IP address allows traffic directed to/from it to be passed on to the wireless network card by NAT32.

Now, go on the Amiga, open a Shell and run the command "MiamiPing -c 4 www.google.com", it should work! You are ready to browse the (wireless) Internet from your Amiga.

Enjoy!
Yann

PS. Next step, remote control the Amiga from any computer on your private network, not just the PC under Windows 2000.
PPS. Next next step, server Web pages from your Amiga using Apache.

Here is are some steps to access the VNC server running on the Amiga (AmiVNC 1.0.0) from any other computer connected to the wireless router (i.e., from your private network).

(Assuming that the AmiVNC server listens on port 5900.)

- Go on the PC under Windows 2000, running NAT32, to which is the Amiga connected.
- Open NAT32 console.
- Type and validate: ppmap add tcp 35900 10.10.10.2 5900, where 35900 is an arbitrary port number.

- Go on any other PC connected to the wireless router, i.e., able to ping the PC under Windows 2000, at 192.168.0.50.
- Run VNC Viewer 3.3.3r2, which in my experience works fine with AmiVNC.
- Type as VNC Server: 192.168.0.50:35900

Enjoy!
Yann

Not true actually! AmiVNC 1.0.0. is not very stable and crashes quite regularly.

Thanks to DiskSalv for helping me recovering from my checksum error! Lesson learned: the cache of Voyager is better in RAM...

[S0ulA55a551n]

Think you have managed to super over complicate things to be honest.

As somone said it one tickbox to share the internet connection across the network in windows 2000 on

more fun was getting this sort of thing setup using serial to connect to win2k machine

[tygre]

Well, maybe, but it works Could you submit the steps to reproduce such a sharing of a wireless network card with a PC under Windows 2000 (not Server by the way) in a different way?

[tygre]

I edited a previous post because AmiVNC v1.0.0 is actually quite stable, my apologies to Stephane Guillard: if it used to crash on my Amiga, it was because of the too many patches that I had installed

Cheers!
Yann

[thomas]

Originally Posted by tygre

Thanks Akira! My apologies for the lack of details: I am running Windows 2000 and I cannot use ICS because the IP 192.168.0.x is already taken by the wireless connection.

You can bridge the two network adapters so that they share the same IP address and the Amiga can be in the same network as the WLAN.

[tygre]

Cool! How do I do that? I checked long ago about bridging adapters but could not figure it out in Windows 2000...

Cheers!
Yann

[thomas]

Well, in WinXP and above, just hold down the shift key, select both adapters and then right-click and choose "create network bridge".

[tygre]

Maybe I should consider moving on to Windows XP... but since it works... I won't fix it!

Thanks though!
Yann

[_ThEcRoW]

@S0ulA55a551n

Have you managed to get it under serial connection?. I tried it long time ago, but can't manage to get it to work.

[tygre]

I just tested AminVNC v1.0.0 running as a server on the Amiga and the VNC Viewer Enterprise Edition 4.1.8 and I could control the Amiga remotely beautifully... and quite fast :-)

Cheers!
Yann

[S0ulA55a551n]

Originally Posted by _ThEcRoW

@S0ulA55a551n

Have you managed to get it under serial connection?. I tried it long time ago, but can't manage to get it to work.

I did but it was so long ago I cant tmeber how to do it, or where I got the instructins from.

I do remember had to use a special driver in Mamia. And was connecting to a win 2k box. I had to create an incomming connection on the windows side and then share the internet connection with that

[tygre]

Hi all!

Thanks again to Thomas!

Indeed, using Windows XP and 7, it is easy to bridge two wire and wirelss NICs Then, the trick is to configure the Amiga (Miami or other) as if it was directly connected to the router!

Cheers!
Tygre

[tygre]

PS. Found an interesting page about using a serial connection...