Batboard

I'm *very* computer literate, but I'm drawing a blank on something a computer-obliterate friend asked me to do this afternoon: set up a wireless network with just laptops.

Do I just need to have one laptop be where the router is installed and configured? That just seems too simple.

Of course it's been a L O N G week at work, and maybe I'm looking for the complicated solution it doesn't have to be.

Any and all help appreciated...

Gordon

If they're looking to get on the internet, they'll need a router/gateway solution.

If they're just looking to get the laptops to talk to each other, that's easy. No need for a WAP or a router. Just place all of the wireless adapters in Ad Hoc mode instead of infrastructure mode, assign them IP addresses, and you're good to go.

You can place the laptops into AdHoc mode (point-to-point, no access point required) and use Windows' Internet Connection Sharing to do what you need.

Beware, adhoc mode isn't the most stable thing in the world, and there is no "mesh" functionality (if A can't communicate with C directly... even if B in the middle can communication with both, traffic won't get routed that way).

Of course, given the cost, why not just toss a cheap $20 access point/router in the middle?

Shoulda thrown this in: they're looking to share a cable modem -- they already have a router, and I set it up using a desktop. But they're looking to get rid of the desktop computer.

Gordon

why do you need a desktop to control the router....? you can use the wireless to control it

It sounds to me like he's using the desktop to do PPPoE.

Gordon - what you're looking to do is easily accomplished with a garden-variety wireless AP/router. You shouldn't need a desktop computer to share a cable modem unless you have some really strange requirements.

and most of the routers i have seen in the last couple of years are now capable of hosting the PPPoE sessions on them. I think it would just be a matter of finding one that's cheap enough for them, if that's what the requirements are.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm seeing him tomorow and will check out the set up. I suspect, as tvsjr has said, that I just need to run the router/ap off of one of the laptops.

Besides, when I do, he'll give me the desktop's nice flatscreen monitor...

Thanks again for the help.

Gordon

NodrogCop wrote:Thanks for all the replies. I'm seeing him tomorow and will check out the set up. I suspect, as tvsjr has said, that I just need to run the router/ap off of one of the laptops.

Besides, when I do, he'll give me the desktop's nice flatscreen monitor...

Thanks again for the help.

Gordon

You shouldn't need a desktop at all. You're trying to share a cable modem out to various clients... something that millions of people do every day.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellit ... torWrapper

A simple little box like this... plug the WAN port into the output of the cable modem... do a little config... and you're good to go. No computer required.

i "think what you are thinking" is that one of the computers had to maintain a session , or a login for the connection to work, like PPPoE or CSLIP requires. A decade a go, if you wanted to share a connection like that, you had to have one computer constantly logged in, and you had to set up the other computers to share thru it at all times....but that is no longer the case. Nowadays, with modern cable endpoints and DSL modems, you no longer have to have a constant demand (the good ol' 'keepalive' packet) on a connection for fear of it getting disconnected or going dormant.

At best, you might have to plug in one of the laptops to configure the AP originally, just a standard cat5 patchcable will do, so that you can configure the AP for security and to confim the internet connection, but that will be it. The AP will host the session for you (if it's PPPoE) or A/DSL or cable, so that you can if you want have both of the laptops off at the same time w/o losing connectivity...the old prerequisite gateway computer is a thing of the past.