Web access stops after 10 minutes on Win98 thru WinXP using ICS

I am running Windows 98 Platform: Windows 98 SE (Win9x 4.10.2222A) MSIE: Internet Explorer v5.00 (5.00.2614.3500) no firewall used via a direct cable link to Windows XP running ICS (connected via DSL to the Net) Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600) MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106) ZoneAlarm used All works well after restarting the Win98 machine for the first 10 minutes. Then the Web browser, IE or Firefox, no longer retrieves any pages. Rebooting the machine restarts the 10 minute timedown - logging off and on the user does not. After the said 10 minutes have passed, when the browsers no longer display new pages, streaming audio still works as does pinging google.com i.e. the machine is still connected to the Net The problem started, although I can't see the connection (no pun intended), when I reconnected the cable to the Win98 machine after a friend used the cable to connect his WinXP SP2. That worked fine for an indefinite period as it had worked with the Win98 machine before. Any ideas would be very welcome since I am totally stomped.

For Internet Connection Sharing (without a router) there are specific steps you must follow in their specific order. If you do not complete the steps in the correct order, you will have to reboot and start over again, until you've completed all steps in the correct order.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/ics_98

My only guess that would jump you past doing a new full installation of ICS on your "host" computer would be that you "might" have tried to use the wrong NIC card on your WinXP machine to connect to your Win98 machine when you were reconnecting your CAT5 cable. You could simply try switching your CAT5 cable to the other NIC card to see if it is the one that you originally used when setting up ICS. If doing this keeps the connection flowing, leave it alone. If not, consider going through the Setup steps as outlined in the link above.

While I'm responding, I will "mention" that Routers are relatively cheap, provide an added level of protection for your home network, and provide better "through-put" for your Network.
Consider a Router.

Best Regards

I went through the ICS instructions on the referred Web page and all was as defined. No changes. As I had mentioned, ICS worked fine, no problems whatsoever … until 10 minutes pass from connection time. After that no Web access. After that time ICS still works. I can ping google.com, for example but no Web access. IE and Firefox. I connected a different machine, instead of my Win98, and it works fine for hours. So it seems that a definition in the Win98 machine may be causing the problem. Any ideas? Anyone?

Read the following link with regard to the .dll files that may or may not have been correctly updated if you upgraded from Win98 to Win98SE. The article shows you a "fix" if this is your circumstance.

http://www.dewassoc.com/support/networking/ics_3.htm

If the mentioned "fix" and other configuration information in the article doesn't help, then proceed on via the link at the bottom of that page for "Trouble-shooting Windows 98 Internet Connection Sharing".

Best Regards

Or, get a Router.

I went through those articles to no avail. Even though the problem is with the Win98 client (not the WinXP server) I decided to upgrade IE from 5.0 (5.00.2614.3500) to 5.5 SP2 (5.50.4807.2300). It replaced both files but this did not help the problem I am experiencing. Please note that ICS works after every boot. There seems to be a timeout on the Win98 client. What is causing it?

Anything here help?

Windows 98 Tips

(Specifically under Connection Timeout Settings )

Unfortunately, no help there.

Have you considered the possibility that it is the HOST that has the "problem", and not you? I had a similar problem a year ago with another ISP. I was using AOL. My "Buddy List" would disappear, then I couldn't load any web pages (like you), but I could still "ping" some places on the web (like you). I had to reboot to gain web access again. Although my problem was less regular than yours. It might happen several times in an hour, or not happen at all for a week. It started after I started using Firefox and Yahoo! Messenger. I just assumed it was an unfortunate combination of software. I tried everything their help(-less ) desk suggested, to no avail. I just lived with it. I have since switched ISP's, and the problem is gone. Since I'm not much of a "network guru", I'm not going to be much help.

It could be that my ISP (not AOL) causes the 10 minute Web timeout only on my Win98 machine. This does seem very unlikely and I have no way of checking it without changing ISP. I'm still searching elsewhere.