Windows XP as a router…

I’ve recently working in an environment where only a wireless network connection was available, however; 2 of my 3 machines did not support wireless internet. After dealing with not having those machines offline for a while, I finally decided to do something about it.

Materials:

1 Cat5 cross-over cable

1 Windows XP machine with wireless and ethernet capabilities

1 Router (I used my LinkSys WRT54G)

Procedure:

1. Connect to the wireless network with your Windows XP machine

2. Open the network properties for that interface (Control Panel -> Network Connections -> (right click) Properties for the device)

3. Open the advanced tab and enable “Allow other users to connect through this computer’s internet connect”

4. Connect the cross-over cable to both the Windows XP machine’s NIC and the uplink on the router

5. Renew the router’s DHCP

At this point you should be able to plug into the router and use the internet as normal. If this setup doesn’t work, you may need to open the properties dialog for your Local Area Network connection and set it to use the wireless adapter as it’s internet source.