Wireless bridge through system

[darkamulets]

I have a existing cat5 network, but my laptop has a wireless card for school. Now the question is I have a spare system running Win2k, is it possible for me to put in a desktop wireless adaptor with the existing wired NIC and turn that system into a access point, so that my laptop can access the net through that system and access the rest of the network?

My existing network setup is a DSL connection to a DI-704 router then to the system.

 

[rw120555]

Why not just plug a wireless access point into your router? That would seem to be simplest.

 

[darkamulets]

but much more expensive, like 100 compared to 40

 

[rw120555]

I think you can get better prices than that. WinXP does make it possible to bridge connections, but even if you could get it free or cheap through your school I'm not sure if what you propose would work.

In WInxp, to bridge connections, open network connections, select both the wireless and ethernet adapters, right click, choose bridge connections. The 2 networks will then behave as one network. Since there is no AP, my guess is you configure the wireless in peer to peer networking mode. Hopefully it would work, but I'm not sure.

 

[darkamulets]

im going to try in 2K by using the wired NIC to route traffic for the wireless one

 

[CZroe]

I bridged a WiFi card with XP to share my Internet connection and it works, but only for a few minutes at a time. Then pings jump to over 33,000ms! I did it "ADHOC" (without an access point) but read on...

If your card has the "Intersil Prism2" WiFi chipset (Most $40 ones do, like my Belkin ones), you have a card capable of running a software access point, with your PC acting as the access point and router/gateway!

Zoom sells Windows access point software for their Prism2 card, and you can get all others to operate as an access point under Linux.

The firmware IS upgradeable, so I'm going to see if I can upgrade to Intersil's latest firmware and run Zoom's Windows software (I doubt it will work, but it's worth a shot).

If that doesn't work, I'm gonna beg some HT forum guys to get me Zoom's firmware so I can cheat with their software

I got two cards for $40 a piece w/ free PCI adapters from an Office Max deal, so if this works for me, I'll be VERY happy with it!