Hi! I have a really annoying problem with ICS on Windows 7. i tried everything i could think of with help of google but still havent managed to solve it. I have 2 nics on my pc: 1 real and 1 virtual( Microsoft Loopback Adapter). Im connected to internet using PPPoe. I shared my pppoe connection using ICS with Microsoft Loopback adapter, it got 192.168.137.1 ip. Im using ForceBindIP to force apps to use nic2 ip. For ex, "ForceBindIP 192.168.137.1 firefox.exe" I have an internet connection on nic2, i can easily browse ,everything is fine with outbound connections ,problem is that seems something is blocking inbound connections on nic2, that something i think is built-in windows firewall. Windows 7 Firewall's default setting for inbound connections is Block,so i tried to change it to allow on all profiles, tried to completely disable it. Tried a lot of other things but nothing helped. so please help me and point out what blocks an inbound connection on nic2 (virtual adapter) ? if its a Firewall and im pretty sure it is. maybe there are some hidden settings for such things ? I have a Windows xp on other pc and such ICS works just fine there , tried on friend's Vista - same problem. Thanks in advance.

Hi Roinca, We tried to duplicate this problem to figure it out, but we weren't able to get it to happen in our lab. Can you give us some more information about how you're setting it up? Is there a virtual machine or something else connected to the loopback adapter, or is it just an application bound to the 192.168.137.1 IP on the loopback adapter? If it's the former, was the correct IP put in place on the connection sharing properties?David Beach - Microsoft Online Community Support

Hi. sry was away on vacation. I was completely wrong about my problem :) So let me try to explain again. I have 2 Network adapters : 1. Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Local Area Connection 2. Microsoft Loopback Adapter - Local Area Connection 3 I'm connected to internet using PPPoe through local network. I'm using ICS on my PPPoe connection to Local Area Connection 3 In Microsoft Loopback Adapter - Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties i have "Use the following IP address " IP Address: 192.168.137.1 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 I think i had it before on "Obtain automatically" - but now it keeps giving 169.254.XX.XX IP So here comes a main problem part. I'm using ForceBindIP http://www.r1ch.net/stuff/forcebindip/ to force applications to use 2 Network Adapter, which is Microsoft Loopback Adapter with IP 192.168.137.1 For ex, ForceBindIP 192.168.137.1 "C:\Program Files\Miranda IM\miranda32.exe" So i start my Miranda with such command line ,connect to Icq , so I'm connected and online ,but in 10-20 seconds Miranda loses connection and tries to reconnect, successfully reconnects, establishes my online status and again loses it in 20 seconds,and so on. Same happens with every program which needs constant internet connection. When i use firefox with ForceBindIP - its totally unnoticeable. So i was searching a lot, trying to find out why its happenning and how to fix this, tried a lot of things. Nothing helped, but one thing helped a little bit. I downloaded SG TCP Optimizer http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php Chose there in Network Adapter selection - Microsoft Loopback Adapter, in settings - Optimal , pressed Apply changes , restarted as requested and now i don't get disconnected every 10-20 sec, time increased a, now it every 1min 10-20sec, maybe its a clue, but really don't know what to do with it. I have been using such thing with ICS/Microsoft Loopback Adapter/ForceBindIp on my Windows XP for a long time, didnt have any problem at all. Tried in on Vista same problem as on Windows 7. So i really need help with fixing those connection drops. thanks in advance

Roinca, The Windows Networking stack was essentially re-architected for Windows Vista and beyond. Many of these changes were made to improve security. Because of this there may be changes that affect the ability of some applications to perform certain tasks or functions. For example, it is possible that the Strong Host Model is coming into play in your issue, but I am not sure. To disable the Strong Host Model you can run the following netsh command. Netsh interface ipv4 set interface [InterfaceNameOrIndex] weakhostsend=disabled Netsh interface ipv4 set interface [InterfaceNameOrIndex] weakhostreceive=disabled Additionally there were some changes in the way winsock calls are handled which could affect the application you mentioned "ForceBindIP", since it is using WS2_32.DLL. From the Web site of the application you mentioned, ForceBindIP: “ForceBindIP is a freeware Windows application that will inject itself into another application and alter how certain Windows Sockets calls are made, allowing you to force the other application to use a specific network interface / IP address. This is useful if you are in an environment with multiple interfaces and your application has no such option for binding to a specific interface.” “As of version 1.2, all known functions in WS2_32.DLL that either explicitly or implicitly bind to an interface are intercepted.” “Due to the APIs required, ForceBindIP will only run on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003” Have you tried the -i parameter? Again, according to the Web site, “Version 1.2 also provides an optional -i parameter. If you find your chosen application crashes on startup or exhibits other unexpected behavior, try using -i” At this point I would suggest you contact the developer of the application, ForceBindIP, to find out if there is a plan to release an updated version that is compatible with Windows Vista and beyond. Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Clark Satter Microsoft Online Community Support