Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Wed, Dec 06, 2006 at 10:12:37PM +0000, sindi keesan wrote:
> 
> 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).

Look at it this way. Your neighbor already had a working wired network card, 
right? But he 
went out and bought a special wireless networking card to replace it, or 
something like that. 
Had he done what I'm suggesting, he wouldn't have had to open his computer 
and take out one 
card to replace it with another. He would simply have bought the travel 
router, put one end of 
an ethernet cable into it and the other end into his computer's wired NIC, 
flipped the switch 
on the travel router to client mode, plugged in the travel router, and he'd 
be able to pick up 
the wireless signal and get his computer on the wireless network. 
Furthermore, if he wanted to 
travel somewhere and had an older laptop with a working wired NIC, he could 
unplug the travel 
router from his home computer, take the travel router along with him, and, by 
plugging it into 
the ethernet port on his laptop, be able to get on wireless networks with the 
laptop while 
travelling. The travel router is alot more versatile than your traditional 
wireless card. If 
prices for this gizmo and a PCI network card were the same (wireless PCI 
cards can often be 
gotten cheaper), I'd always choose the travel router over the internal PCI 
card. It does have 
the down-side of having extra wires and its own separate power plug, but in 
general its 
greater flexibility outweighs those in my view.

Here's a pic: 
http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/9/0,1425,i=94013,00.jpg

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

The thing I described next is not a card. It's a full-size wired + wireless 
router. Separate 
piece of hardware like the travel router, and can be used similarly.

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

Looks something like this: 
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00007KDVI.01._AA280_SCLZZZZZZZ_V40411728_.jpg
 Since it 
has both wired and wireless routers integrated into it, and since the Linux 
code that runs it 
has been extensively tweaked, there are likely ways to make it act as a 
client that 
distributes the wireless signal it picks up out the 4 rj45 jacks on the back 
of the router. I 
don't know from personal experience, but I don't see why, in principle, it 
couldn't do this.

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

I thought you said you were considering buying a wireless PCI adaptor (you 
said "I suppose I 
could pay money for a PCI wireless card."). I was just saying that you should 
consider 
spending that money on a more flexible wireless device like the travel router 
I described.

James