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Display Name (?):

Internet Connection Sharing

Short Name (?):

SharedAccess

Executable (?):

svchost.exe

Library (?):

ipnathlp.dll

Depends On (?):

None.

Supports (?):

None.

Description (?):

Provides network address translation, addressing, and name resolution services for all computers on your home network through a dial-up connection.

OS (?):

2000 Professional, 2000 Server

Startup (?):

Default	Home	Workstation	Server	Minimal	Tweaked	Automatic
Manual	Manual	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled

Explanation (?):

The Internet connection sharing service allows you to use your computer much like a hardware router. Through the use of network address translation, addressing, name resolution, and a simplified DCHP server named the DHCP allocator your computer may intercept data from a broadband or narrowband connection, and acting as a proxy (gateway) server, transfer the data to other computers on your network. This allows for other computers to use a single Internet connection without having to purchase additional software or hardware, and even secures the internal computers as they are blocked by a translation server. This is because the gateway receives incoming requests and without forwarding policies the gateway has no way of knowing which computer the information is meant for, so it discards the data. This is more of a flaw than a feature, but this concept is often sold as a feature on many hardware routers you can buy in the store.

If you do not wish to use this feature you can safely disable this service without any problems. However, the default state of this service is manual so disabling it will not relieve any additional resources if you are not using it. Therefore I would recommend leaving it to manual.