Desktop and Notebook Wireless Lan w/o AP or Router?

[Beller0ph1]

I was wondering if this would work. I have a desktop hooked up to my dorm's network (or my home network at home). My laptop runs off of a wireless card. If I got a wireless PCI card for the desktop, could the laptop and the desktop share the same connection without the use of a router or access point? Thanks!

 

[Confused]

Yeah, you would be able to get the laptop to share the network connection. I would suggest going for a USB Wireless adapter for the desktop machine, as the 1-2m of USB cable will allow you to position the the adapter in the optimal position, not stuck behind a huge hunk of metal and electrical interference that is your computer!

If you're running 98SE/Me/2k/XP, then you can do Internet Connection Sharing of your dorm/home connection, and share it onto your wireless adapter, then the laptop will be able to get on the internet through that 🙂

This is what I'm going to be setting up today when my USB/PCMCIA wireless adapters come through the door 🙂


Confused

 

[Beller0ph1]

So yeah, I got my shiny new Netgear MA101 wireless adapter today and am at the brink of pulling out my hair trying to get this to work. I have a Compaq wireless card in my laptop that works fine with my wireless router. However, when I try to do peer to peer, the desktop says that it's connected, but the laptop doesn't have a clue. What am I doing wrong?

 

[JackMDS]

In order to work you have to configure both wireless cards to Ad-Hoc connection. It is a feature usually available in the drivers properties.

BTW, there is no good reason to go the Ad-Hoc way. There are Wireless Cable/DSL Routers on sale for less then $50. They can be used as a Router, or just as an Access Point. Surfing will be much better than using Ad-Hoc connection.

 

[Eric1285]

Yeah. Make sure that you use Ad-Hoc for your laptop. Make sure it's set to detect the SSID of your desktop. You can try using Netstumbler to see if you can even detect your desktop.