Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, James Miller wrote:

> 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

1.  PCMCIA wireless ethernet card

2.  PCMCIA wired Base10 ethernet card (in a computer where both PCMCIA 
ports work, that even has 24MB RAM for Win98)

        both in laptop with Win98

3.  Crossover ethernet cable

4.  PCI or ISA wired ethernet card in desktop.

> 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 could always buy a PCI wireless card that works in linux.

> 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).

The wireless connection is next door, so we either have to have a wireless 
card in each computer, or in one computer that is wired into a network. 
The wireless card we were given is PCMCIA cardbus and should work in 
Window.  (I think it worked for you in your laptop).  We don't want to 
wander around, just download linux packages faster, if possible via linux 
not Win98.  We have no interest in putting out a wireless signal, just 
receiving it and passing it along via wire.

We also have an ISA PCMCIA slot so could use a wireless laptop card in a 
desktop (if we bought one that worked in linux).

> 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

Our neighbor is using just a wireless network card to pick up a wireless 
signal with no need for this gadget.  He has a big collection of pcmcia 
linksys cards that probably work only in Windows (unless you jump through 
hoops imitating Windows in linux).

I wish the library had wired ethernet to plug into.

> 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.

I think we have two version 4 cards of something that worked with linux up 
to version 3.

What does this gadget look like?  Does it pick up a signal and then let 
you plug in several wired-network computers into it?

> 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.

We would prefer not to spend money on this experiment so will try to 
network with Win98 and our two pcmcia wireless cards first.

> James
>
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org