Ad Hoc Internet Connection Sharing Error

I'm not aware of any tool that could autodetect/autofix problems with missing services. I wonder which service is missing that's causing the problems.. but we should probably start with listing the services ICS depends on ;p I'll see what I can find.

We've got:
DCOM Server Process Launcher
RPC Endpoint Mapper
Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service
Plug and Play
Network Store Interface Service

Open up the Services applet and look for each of these. IDK if there are online resources you can get the neccessary files from, but if not it wouldn't be too much trouble to get you situated (:

Anyways, I'm pretty sure ICS just bridges the network connections for you. You could highlight both interfaces and Right-click > Add to Bridge, and see if that works for you.

Alternatively, you could try to set up a soft AP using the Hosted Network feature of Windows 7. It not only starts a WPA encrypted WiFi network using your wireless card, but you also retain the ability to connect to a separate AP. Supposedly you can use ICS or bridge the interfaces to share Internet access to devices on the Hosted Network as well. Some people have been able to get this working, others haven't. You may need to update your driver's to use it as well. This is only available from the command line, and I think it requires admin privileges (I suspect because the feature hasn't reached a very reliable status).

Define parameters:

Code:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=NetworkNameHere key=YourPasswordHere

Start the AP:

Code:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

Show AP configuration, as well as connected devices:

Code:

netsh wlan show hostednetwork

Stop the AP:

Code:

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

Disable the AP:

Code:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow

If you get the Hosted Network working, you can create shortcuts to run these commands to place on your desktop. Just make a shortcut, set Start in: C:/Windows/System32 and copy the command to start or stop the AP into the Target field.

A hosted wireless network "Ad Hoc" network, is sharing a wireless connection, wireless to wireless only, it's not for sharing a wired connection to wireless. Many people seem to be confused about this unfortunate fact.

I did not know that. When I'd installed Connectify Hotspot (an app that is supposed to automate the hosted network and ad-hoc network sharing) I seem to remember it giving an option to share a wired connection over ad-hoc wireless, and recommended it as the option for wireless sharing for XP users who don't have the Windows 7 Hosted Network feature.

I could be wrong, but maybe you could check it out? I would be curious to know what your thoughts are on it.