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  • From: James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] NFS on BL3
  • Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 12:09:52 -0500

On Wed, Dec 06, 2006 at 03:59:09PM +0000, sindi keesan wrote:
>
> We have a laptop with Windows and a PCMCIA wireless ethernet card with
> Windows drivers. Is there some way to connect to the neighbor's broadband
> service via the Windows laptop and then network with a linux computer and
> use a linux browser on the internet? I suppose I could pay money for a
> PCI wireless card.

Depends alot. Mainly on what Windows version you're using. Search g/scr oogle
under "internet connection
sharing" and you should turn up alot of information on doing this with
Windows. You would surely need 2
interfaces: one to pick up the wireless signal and to act as your portal to
the WAN/internet, the other
(serial, laplink cable?) to share the connection with another computer on
your private LAN. Be aware that
most of those "information" sites on internet connection sharing for Windows
are mainly aiming to sell
you something. In any case, Windows won't make a very good router or NAT'er,
which is essentially what
you're asking it to do. Linux works much better for this.

I managed to pick up a device for a reasonable price ($20 after rebate) that
can get any Linux old
computer that has a working NIC onto a wireless network. If you're going to
invest in a new piece of
hardware, I'd suggest one of these. It falls broadly under the category of a
"travel router." It's a tiny
wirless router with some nice added functionality. I think most folks would
buy it to use in their motel
room while travelling. Hook it up to an ethernet jack in your motel room and
you can share your motel's
network wirelessly using it (e.g., you can then wander around your room with
your wirless-enabled laptop,
remaining connected to the 'net without having to drag around cables).
Anyway, the salient added
functionality of this router for purposes of this post is that it has a
little switch on the bottom that
can put the router in client mode. Once you put it in client mode and do a
power cycle, you can then hook
it to your computer's ethernet card and it will relay your dhcp request to
wireless AP's (access points)
or routers in range and, if any are offering IP's, get you on said wireless
network. In short, it acts as
a wireless interface to your wired NIC. I see alot of travel routers
advertised by various companies
these days. I don't know if they all have the functionality of the one I got.
Mine's a D-link (if anyone
wants further info like model #, let me know). For $20, it was a worthwhile
purchase. I think they're
about 2x that cost without the rebate, though.

Another option along these lines would be to check craigslist for older
(full-sized) Linksys WRT54G
routers. The older verions (ver. 1 - 3, I believe--beware of version 5 and
above) ran Linux. There exist
all kinds of versions of Linux that people have put together for these
routers that add functionality.
One such added function is client mode, which would make the router do
essentially what I described above
for the D-link travel router (act as a wireless interface to your wired NIC).
These can sometimes be had
for $20 - $25 on craigslist.

Finally, at least one wireless chip maker, ralink, is releasing open source
code for their chipsets.
Edimax makes a PCI card that uses this chipset that runs around $20 new
(newegg: I got mine for $5, minus
antenna, out of a local computer store's junk bin). I have a PCMCIA card that
uses this chipset as well,
but it's a noname card. I could give the fcc # or tell you where I bought it,
if anyone's interested.
Only cost around $17 (shipping included). Whether the ralink source for the
modules for this card/chipset
would compile for older kernels, I cannot say. But if it would, this could be
another way of doing
wirless on BL.

James




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