Troubleshoot: Share LAN Internet Connection In Windows 7

Previously you have learned how to setup a LAN internet sharing with a single modem. Today I am sharing all the possible errors you can find and all the technical problems you can encounter that may hinder your internet sharing. They are:

• Client cannot identify Network: Unidentified network
• Client can identify Network, but cannot connect to internet
• Client can identify Network and connect to internet, but internet keeps breaking down
• Client can identify multiple Networks

If you have reached this article from search result, you may need to only refer to your particular problem. All the fixes and workarounds have been tested and confirmed by myself that should be applicable for all Windows 7 users.

Before we start troubleshooting, all these errors and screenshots are the ones you can justify from Network And Sharing Center. And also note that all the problems in the screenshots are consistent, meaning that the client is given sufficient time (approximately 1 minute) to connect to the server by itself. They are not the ones that the client show at the moment it is connected to a server.

Visit Share LAN Internet Connection In Windows 7: Setup if you have no clue what I am talking about.

The general fix that applies to all of this problems is to click on the red X icon and let Windows troubleshoot itself. However there may be times when this does not fix the issue. The following fixes are reflected to the way Windows fix it and are expanded for each different cases of error.

Client cannot identify Network: Unidentified network

Unidentified Network

This may be the favorite one for the first-time internet sharing. To solve this issue, unplug your LAN cable and wait for 10 seconds, then plug it in again. Do this repeatedly until your client can identify the Network.

Client can identify Network, but cannot connect to internet

Client identifies Network from server but cannot connect to internet

This may happen everytime you share your internet connection from a server to client. To solve this problem, do the following:

1. Client: From Network And Sharing Center, click on Local Area Connection.

Click on Local Area Connection under Network And Sharing Center

2. Select Details and check the line in Network Connection Details: DHCP Enabled. If it is Yes, you can skip to the next step. If it is No, close the windows and proceed to the Properties. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. Now under General tab, choose Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.

(1) Check DHCP Enabled. If it is marked No, proceed to (2) (picture below)

Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and choose Properties

Make both the IP and DNS server address to be obtained automatically

3. Check if the client can connect to internet now. If it still cannot connect to internet, the Server need to reset the internet sharing. Repeat Step 4 from the internet sharing setup article: un-tick the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection and press OK all the way. Then re-tick it again.

4. Wait for a few seconds. Check if the client connects to internet now. If it does not, unplug the LAN cable and plug it in again. Your client should now be able to connect to internet after a few seconds.

Client can identify Network and connect to internet, but internet keeps breaking down

This one is subjective to different cases. It may be due to damaged LAN cable, unstable internet connection (the usual case) or server/client network adapter problems. All of these are not included as technical problem anymore and not covered by this article. If the internet goes down so often after you apply the internet sharing, you may need to contact your ISP. They will most likely, however, encourage you to stop internet sharing, this dirty tricks that may cost them profit loss.

Client can identify multiple Networks

In special cases, when the client can identify multiple networks, it shows Network 9, Network 2 and an Unidentified Network (for example) when it is connected to a server at the same time. If the client can connect to internet with this configuration, then I recommend you to just leave it, it is not a problem. Otherwise, you need to do the same with that on the first problem: Client cannot identify Network: Unidentified network (see above).


Some extra technical knowledge you may want to know about this:

The Server IP when sharing is always the same. Under Network Connection Details, it has this configuration:

DHCP Enabled: No
IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.1
IPv4 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

While the Client IP will be something like this:

DHCP Enabled: Yes
IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.1XX
IPv4 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Why do you need to know this? When all the steps mentioned above fail to fix the problem, the advanced method is: instead of making both IP and DNS Server Address to be automatically obtained (see: Client can identify Network, but cannot connect to internet, step 2), key-in or change the numbers into these addresses for your client and choose Validate settings upon exit.

This is basically the end to the complete and detailed guide for setting up and troubleshooting internet sharing in Windows 7. As previously mentioned, you do not need to go through all these steps: you can use the general fix. All these steps are merely the accurate way to handle each different case of issue.