gaming issues due to ICS under xp

[oldmate]

G'day all, i have a problem, my desktop is connected to a LAN. My desktop has 2 NICs in it, one connected to a LAN and the other connected to my laptop. I have ICS set up on the desktop and i can connect the laptop to my lan and the net. The problem is that i wish to play network games on my laptop on the LAN my desktop is connected to. I have checked out some articles on this and i think its to do with the ports ics opens??? I have looked at the ports that directx and other games use for multiplayer and there are way to many to enter in the ICS setting. Anyone know if there is a better or easy way to achieve this goal.

Also when i have ICS enabled on the desktop some games will not connect to LAN games, and i have to disable it to play LAN games on the desktop.

 

[Nodsu]

It is one of the "features" of Windows firewall/ICS to let you forward only single ports. Also, many games do not use static ports to do their stuff.

You either need some better ICS software (Linux ) (a hardware router would be an overkill) or just connect the laptop directly to the LAN.

 

[Liquidlen]

Load ZoneAlarm there is a free one ,turn off ICS and put ZA in learning mode once you approve the proper software requests it should work .For sure it will work better than ICS