Setting up Windows 7 as a gateway/router for a mobile broadband connection is simple, if you just understand what is going to happen. At the moment of writing this I’m currently using this solution for internet access as my ADSL land line is down and I wanted a solution that ment minimal impact on my home setup.
What we are going to do in 3 simple steps
- Setup a computer with Window 7 to share a mobile broadband connection through a Huawei modem. (This will be the gateway/router)
- Reconfigure all affected devices to access internet
- Surf surf surf!!!
Here we go!
- Connect the dongle to the “gateway/router” computer.
- Verify internet access
- Open Network Settings and select the dongle adapter
- Right click and select properties
- Select “Share this connection” (THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU HAVE 2 OR MORE ADAPTERS!!)
- Select the network that is on the “home/safe” side of the connection (you private LAN or WIFI)
- Done! Now Internet Connection Shring is enabled (ICS for short)
- Now the “home/safe” adapter has been DHCP Server enabled (beware if you have a DHCP server already!) and the adapter has been assigned the IP 192.168.137.1. The DHCP scope is 192.168.137.0/24.
- Now its time to set up the clients, manually!
- On the clients goto Network Settings and select the adapter you are currently using to access you network (LAN or WIFI)
- Manually set the following:
- IP: 192.168.137.xxx (select a number between 100-199 per client)
- Mask: 255.255.255.0
- Gateway: 192.168.137.1
- DNS: 192.168.137.1
- Now Surf!
To reset every thing to normal once you are done, just change all client adapters to DHCP and remove the “Share this connection” on the mobil broadband adapter.
Why set up IP manually u ask? Well, I want minimal interference with my current setup and this allows me to selectively assign internet access to clients based on how good a connection to 3G/4G i have.
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