Mac Internet Sharing and Remote Desktop

Question

I've got an iMac running OS X 10.8.3. I connect to the internet via ethernet and have ICS setup to share the ethernet connection over wi-fi.

I then have a Windows XP Dell laptop that connects to the iMac's Wi-Fi. This works fine, the Dell laptop can access the internet.

My problem is that I want to use Microsoft's Remote Desktop on the iMac and use that to connect to the Dell.

This used to work fine but for some reason it doesn't anymore.

The iMac's ethernet connection uses 255.255.255.0 and 192.168.1.1 as the router.

The Wi-fi on the iMac has a "self-assigned IP" of 169.254.51.168 (but I can't see how this is used anywhere). I can't connect to any Wi-fi networks as the ICS is enabled.

On the windows laptop, the IP it gets assigned is 192.168.2.2 and the router (which must be the iMac is 192.168.2.1).

For the remote desktop connection I would always use 192.168.2.2 and it would work.

Now it doesn't, says "The Mac cannot connect to the Windows-based computer".

From the iMac I cannot even ping 192.168.2.2 - "request timeout".

The Windows firewall is off on the Windows laptop.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Answer 1

The Wi-fi on the iMac has a "self-assigned IP" of 169.254.51.168

and

On the windows laptop, the IP it gets assigned is 192.168.2.2 and the router (which must be the iMac is 192.168.2.1).

However, the iMac's Wireless IP isn't that at all. You have observed that it is instead 169.254.51.168. This is (at least) one of the reasons why it isn't working.

Manually set the iMac's Wireless IP address to 192.168.2.1, with a subnet of 255.255.255.0. It should work. Or, you'll be one step closer. The real reason why it stopped working is the same reason the iMac's WiFi changed its IP address.