ICS over bluetooth problem! Plz help!!

Please accept my apologies in advance for this long post but I've tried to include as much information as I could in the pursuit of finding a solution to this (what seems) quite common problem. I've searched and searched and searched but as yet I am unable to find a solution.

Without going into detail I cannot directly access the WiFi router (and thus the internet) at my girlfriends house so have been using ICS to connect via her machine (the Host) which, until recently, has been running fine. We both have identical Samsung NC10's (WinXP Home SP3) with WiFi, (wired) Ethernet ports, and Bluetooth. Her machine connects to the the router via WiFi while Bluetooth is used on both machines to create the LAN between the two (at, might I add, a not unreasonable 2.1Mbps, plenty fast enough for general web surfing).

Although it may be entirely unreleated I recently installed a HP Photosmart C4580 Wireless Printer at her house (with the software only residing on her laptop) and, either coincidentally or consequently, ICS has stopped working since.

Incidentally the software for the printer has, at one time, also been installed on my machine too as, after having problems setting up the printer at her house (it wouldn't connect to the router), I took it back to my house and set it up with my machine and router, which did work. After figuring out the problem (her router needs a button on the back to be pressed to enter incoming connections on its MAC filtering table. Doh!) I uninstalled the (massively bloated) HP software from my machine.

Whether the installation of the printer is actually related to ICS now not working is unknown but I thought it a neccessary detail to include.

Now, both machines will still, via Bluetooth, form a LAN and can see each others shared folders and can ping each other. The client machine still has the "Internet Gateway" icon (referencing the host machine) appearing in the Network Connections window, but the internet remains in-accessible. I have tried letting Windows set the IP addresses for both machines (ICS on the host and DHCP on the client) and also setting them manually, and I've also ensured the ICS and DNS services are running on both machines. I've also installed the KB951830 hotfix on both machines.

Here are the "ipconfig /all" results for both machines. For the sake of clarity all unneccessary adapters have been disabled so don't appear.


HOST Machine:

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\KelBel>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Kelly
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-2C-ED-FD-0E
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-2C-1C-F0-06
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.171
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 20 September 2009 22:09:11
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 21 September 2009 22:09:11 

Client Machine:

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\Paul>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ShadesNetbook
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : mshome.net

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : mshome.net
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-22-69-E4-36-1B
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.125
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 20 September 2009 21:55:39
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 27 September 2009 21:55:39 

I have also been doing a little digging to try and find more information that may be relevant. I have tried using "nslookup" on the client machine, which seems to be querying the DNS cache of the host machine (as far as I can tell), even after doing "ipconfig /flushdns" on both machines. Some results:

Code:

> www.google.com
Server:  Kelly.mshome.net
Address:  192.168.0.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    www.l.google.com
Addresses:  209.85.227.147, 209.85.227.105, 209.85.227.99, 209.85.227.103
          209.85.227.104, 209.85.227.106
Aliases:  www.google.com

> www.nursingtimes.net
Server:  Kelly.mshome.net
Address:  192.168.0.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    www.nursingtimes.net
Address:  217.64.236.120

Ive also checked the "hosts" file (\windows\system32\drivers\etc) on the both machines to see if anything on either machine is being redirected to 127.0.0.1 (it isn't)

Please don't suggest just connecting to the router as that isn't going to happen, so ICS is the only way I will be able to access the internet at my girlfriends house. Any help in succesfully resolving this problem will be gratefully recieved as I'm starting to rip my hair out! LOL

Thanks in advance!

Shades

 

I know we're not supposed to post bump on MG :-o but it appears this post has attracted very little attention and its a problem I really, really need help with.

More information...

There is no firewall software running on either machine. I've tried the Winsock fix. I've gone through millions of MS Knowledge Base articles. Everything appears to be setup correctly. There doesn't appear to be any warnings in the Event Viewer that jump out. ICS won't even work the other way round either (using my machine as the host, and the other as the client!).

Come on guys, there must be some braniacs on MG that can help me sort this out! ICS did work but it just suddenly stopped and I need it (its a pain in the butt not having internet access at my girlfriends house!!)

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!!?!!

Shades