Sharing the internet connection of a Windows machine with a BeagleBone

Let's assume that

• you have a Windows 7 or 8 machine that is connected to the internet via WLAN
• you have an ethernet cable running from your Windows machine to the BeagleBone.
• you want to "share" the internet connection of the Windows machine with the BeagleBone.

The solution: Use "Internet Connection Sharing" (ICS): In the Windows Network Adapter settings, right-click the WLAN adapter, choose "Properties", then go to the "Freigabe" ("Sharing"?) tab and activate the top checkbox that says something about "Allow other computers to use this computer's internet connection". There is a drop-down menu next to it, where you need to choose the ethernet network card.

Note: I got an error last time, something about "can't control adapter settings" or so - I did not write down the error message. This error went away after rebooting the PC.

The Windows computer will then become a sort-of router. It will assign some fixed IP address to your network card (for me it was 192.168.137.1), and it will act as a DHCP server on that network card. But, Windows being Windows, it does not tell you which IP adress it assigns to the BeagleBone!

If you know the network name of you BeagleBone (default: arm), then you should be able to reach it from your windows machine via "arm.mshome.net". If you don't know the network name, you can try to download a network scanner such as this one, and scan the network range from 192.168.137.1 to 192.168.137.255. Two machines should show up: Your own, and the BeagleBone!