Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

In addition to the standard TCP/IP services provided in Windows, Microsoft includes Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) services in all versions of Windows since Windows 98. What ICS does
is to take an Internet connection to one computer and share it with the rest of the computers on a network, essentially turning the computer connected to the Internet into an Internet gateway for
the rest of the network. Microsoft states that ICS works mostly at the Network layer of the OSI model, where it facilitates layer 3 access to the Internet on behalf of one or more other devices.
ICS works with just about any Internet connection type. The main benefit to ICS is that you are running an Internet gateway in software so you can avoid the added expense of a router for
your small network. However, the software gateway in ICS isn’t as efficient as a dedicated hardware router.