NetworkManager version 0.7, shipped with Ubuntu 8.10 and later, contains a redesigned user interface for managing network connections.
Among the new features and UI is an option to make a connection “Shared to other computers”. This is basically a dead-simple NAT (Network Address Translation), or Internet connection sharing, built right in to NetworkManager.
To enable this, you must follow three steps:
- Install dnsmasq on your computer. (On Ubuntu, you will want to install the
dnsmasq-basepackage. - Make sure your WAN connection (i.e. Internet-connected connection) is all configured (e.g. with DHCP or a static address) and working.
- For your LAN interface (which might be a second network card or a wireless card), select “Shared to other computers” in the IPv4 Settings tab.
If everything works right, NetworkManager should have auto-configured a subnet and DHCP server on your LAN interface, and is ready for sharing your Internet connection. Easy peasy!
All sorted. It was a misunderstanding of how to connect to the adhoc network again after a reboot.
I setup IPs manually and it worked fine. after the reboot, it suddenly fired up the DHCP server.
To get it working, reboot your ubuntu machine and then select “Create New Wireless Connection”. Select your previously created Adhoc Wireless Network from the dropdown and voila — all working.
(makes more sense when you have an Ubuntu box in front of you).
For info, I was using the Netbook version of 10.04
Glad you got it working. Yeah, ad-hoc networks are a pain in NetowrkManager, I’ll give you that — they’re also very fiddly and unreliable sometimes.