A sure sign that a company is on its way out is when it starts needlessly defeaturing its products to create artificial market segments rather than innovating new features to add value. Windows 7 Starter is a good example of this sad phenomena.
Microsoft originally planned to impose a three application limit to Windows 7 Starter so that no more than three applications could be run at once. Of course, this outrageous, artificial and completely unjustified limitation would have actually cost Microsoft time and money to implement. With the exception of a handful of confused apologists, the three app limitation earned the Redmond software giant widespread derision. Eventually, public scorn caused Microsoft to drop this bone-headed idea before releasing Windows 7 Starter edition last fall.
However, there are other stupid and disingenuous ways Microsoft castrated Windows 7 Starter. Not only is there an artificially imposed 2GB memory limit and the fantabulous new snipping tool is gone, but Microsoft stripped Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) from Win7 Starter. Of course, there are absolutely no technical reasons for killing ICS, a feature that for many years has enabled users to easily set up Windows systems to serve the Internet to home networks.
The Redmond software beast wants you to fork over your hard earned dough through “Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade” to buy back ICS, a particularly vital feature for netbooks that come with integrated broadband cellular modems. Worse still, netbooks are particularly well-suited for home servers since they use very little power and have a built-in UPS. So killing ICS from Win7 Starter was a particularly ungreen move for the spawn of Bill Gates.
Well, it’s very easy to overcome all of the limitations your Microsoft overlord imposes. You’ll need to download Jolicould Linux here. A good application to burn the Jolicloud installation image to disk is ISO Recorder which you can download here. If you don’t have a USB CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, you can create a bootable USB key drive by following the instructions here. You can even install Jolicloud from within Windows if you download Jolicloud Express from here. Once you’ve created your boot disk/USB key, boot from it. You can install Jolicloud so that you can chose between Win7 Starter and Jolicloud at boot time, or you can completely expunge Win7 and replace it with Jolicloud.
Boot into Jolicloud and connect your netbook to the Internet. An added benefit Jolicould brings are preinstalled broadband cellular modem drivers along with proper settings for many carriers. When Jolicloud detects a new broadband cellular modem, the Network Manager menu, activated by clicking on the appropriate Gnome Panel icon in the top of the screen, will list a new broadband device. Clicking on that menu entry will bring up a simple wizard so that you can select your carrier and ensure that the correct number is dialed. It literally takes about ten seconds to to set up a new cellular modem connection in Jolicloud Linux.
To share your Internet connection, whether cellular or otherwise, right-click on the same Network Manager icon and select “Edit Connections…”. Click the “Add” button no either the Wired or Wireless tab, depending on which way you plan to share your Internet connection. Give the new connection a descriptive name like “Shared Internet Connection”. On the IPv4 tab, select “Shared to other computers” as the Method. Click “Apply”.
Reboot your netbook. After you sign in, activate the Internet connection in the Network Manager menu if it is not automatically activated. It might also be necessary to manually activate your “Shared Internet Connection” by clicking on the corresponding Network Manager menu entry.
You should now be actively sharing your Internet connection with your home network.
It’s humorous to note that Microsoft did a predictably sloppy job disabling ICS in Windows 7 Starter. In fact, it is still available, but only if you want to share your active Internet connection over an ad-hoc wireless network. In other words, other computers will have to connect to your netbook wirelessly to see the Internet. To set up this type of Internet connection sharing configuration, simply type “adhoc” in the Windows 7 Start menu search box. This will filter down to wizard that enables you to set up an ad hoc ICS network.
17 Responses to “Netbook Internet Connection Sharing — Despite Windows 7 Starter”
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how do I enable ics over an ad-hoc network in win7 starter?
Basically, you only have to search for “adhoc” from the Win7 Start menu. The process is outlined in many places, but I think the first instance is here:
http://www.withinwindows.com/2009/12/02/windows-7-starter-hides-but-allows-ad-hoc-networking/
Thanks a lot for your useful post. I find my way to Jolicould and I will definitely give it a try.
Best regards
Thabet
THANK YOU!!! I just changed 2 laptops to linux and being a newbie was shocked to not be able to ad hoc the two. I search and asked in forums but to no avail. I searched the web today and tried your listing. with computer in hand I followed intsructions and hurrah!! Both mine are Toshiba satellites, one is Mint julia and the other is Ubuntu.
I am going to put a link to this site on the forum for mint, ok?
I need the simple language , thanks!
six
This doesn’t actually work thou. You create the adhoc network, then when you click on the “enable ICS” tab you get a message saying “you don’t have enough previlleges” (I am administrator). Am I missing somehting?
Even i had the same problem……
hey um…. do you know how to set up the NAT to open for an ICS in Jollycloud?
Thanks so much for posting this!!! My wireless cards dead on my other laptop so I was trying to get ICS working on windows 7 starter for ages! Got Joli OS on my netbook now and it works great! Cheers for the help
Hi,
I don’t know if the above mentioned is the problem with the Windows 7 Starter version, When i plug in my broadband cable at one of the internet cafe to my laptop which had windows 7 Home version installed, within a matter of moments m able to browse. And when i tried doing the same thing with my other laptop which has Windows 7 Starter version installed, it shows its connected with internet access, but there is no data transfer, i even checked the Tools – Work Offline also. Still nothing is happening. Can somebody help me out or is it all in regards to the discussion above where it would not be possible on a Windows 7 Starter Version.
Regards,
Darrel Antony
Have you tried the Windows troubleshooter? Right-click on the network connection icon in the system tray and choose “Troubleshoot problems.” If you have the notebook connected to a wired network, disable the wireless connection to simplify troubleshooting.
in the ICS no tap of sharing
Whether it is necessary to type ADHOC or «ADHOC»
At me can’t find anything writes «it is found nothing»
Type “ad-hoc”. you need the hyphen.
Now just use Connectify. Nice blog as well.
Thank you very much for this post! I bought an android pad, and as we all knew it required only wireless network, I’m on my sister in-law’s house, she has wimax internet, but no wireless router. I put the wimax internet on her notebook hoping to share it via adhoc wireless network on win7 starter, but unfornately ics is disabled in win7 starter. So I searched for a solution and found this post, realy, really worked! – jurdan of http://pctechpalawan.com
how do I enable ics over an ad-hoc network in win7 starter?