Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing Forum

I would like to share my internet connection with a friend. What I have is a wireless network which my wife and I connect laptops through. The wireless router has connection for wired connections as is normal. My friend's computer is a desktop and no wireless card. I would like to connect his desktop through a wired connection. My concern is to be able to maintain security between his computer and ours, such that he has no access to anything on our systems or us to his system. Is that doable?

I am using Vista Home Premium SP2, my wife Windows 7 Home Premium and his is Windows XP Home SP3.

Thank You

That was recently discussed here, and would require a 2-router setup. Your friend would be on the "Semi-Secure LAN" connected to the first (External NAT) router, while you would be on the "Super-Secure LAN" connected to the second (Internal NAT) router.

With a 2-router setup, your friend would not be able to see anything on your network, however you would be able to see anything on his network.


That requires a 3rd router be added, which would function as a second "Super-Secure LAN", to which your friend's system would then be connected. That way the two networks would be *completely* isolated, however both would still be able to use the same internet connection. Scott.

I have set up two routers behind a cable modem as follows:

From cable modem I connected the first router to its internet port. From port one on the first router I connected a cable to the internet port on the second router. From port one on the first router I connected a cable to PC-1. I have PC-2 and PC-3 connected to the second router via wireless connection. When viewing My Network on PC-3 I see PC-2 and PC-3 as well as an additional wireless print server I have and a wireless printer I have all connected to the second router. I do not see the first router or PC-1. I thought from your reply that I should see the first router and PC-1. Did I miss understand or is something not connected or configured correctly? When looking at My Network on PC-1 I do not see anything connected via the second router. That is how I understood it should be.

My goal is to share a internet connection with a friend in such a way as to not give him any access to the network on the second router.

Thank You,

From your description it sounds like everything is set up and working as it should. Note that by default Windows cannot "browse" systems in different subnets, however you can access them by entering the IP address directly. If you don't know the IP address, you can use tools like the Angry IP Scanner to find systems on other subnets. For more information on how network browsing works in Windows, and how cross-subnet browsing can be configured, see this article on Network Browsing. Scott.

Thank you for your response. I will review the information you provided.