Windows Router

A cheap and easy way of adding a router to your network is to use a surplus PC with Windows XP or Windows 7 installed on it. Just install an additional network card in the box and then configure the registry setting below and Presto! Your Windows box becomes able to route (forward) IP packets from one interface to another.

Open Regedit and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Find the following registry value:

IPEnableRouter

Set this value to 1 to enable IP routing on the box.

After doing this, reboot the machine. You may also need to disable Windows Firewall on the machine.

As an alternative to the above you can save the following information to a text file with an extension of .reg. You can then double click the file to make the system change the requird information.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
"IPEnableRouter"=dword:00000001

I have successfully used the above registry change on Windows XP Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.