Wireless Internet & LAN

[ITChrism]

Hi there - Thanks in advance for listening & helping!

I have two desktop PCs networked (10MB LAN) and would like to sign up with my local wireless internet provider (and share the internet connection). What is the cheapest option to do so?

Wireless Initiative Equipment (http://www.wirelessinitiative.net/Equipment/)

A) I could re-activate my old Laptop, buy a WiFi and hook it up to my LAN router and have it function as a router (and firewall?). This way I only have to buy the PCMCIA card and no PCI adapter (they recommend Orinoco Gold and the Silver sells for about $68 right now - what other WiFi options do I have?)

B) I could buy some 'fancy' hardware that connects my LAN with the Wireless Internet - any ideas what kind of hardware that would be? :confused: This way I would not have to leave the Laptop running all the time (but I guess I wouldn't have a Firewall then?)

If I use the Laptop - should I go with Linux to get a hold of free Firewall software?

Thanks!!

[ECGriffith]

If you hook your Laptop up to the LAN router, you'd basically be making it an access point of sorts (you'd have to have all other wireless clients set to ad-hoc mode to share data, but that won't let you share Internet connection).

I think you need a wireless "gateway" that shares your Internet connection with wireless clients (and usually has a router built in to share with wired clients, too). Zoom Telephonics has one, Intel has one, Belkin has one, to name a few.

You don't need Linux to get free Firewall software. Windows free firewalls for home use are available from (Zone Labs (http://www.zonelabs.com) and Tiny Software (http://www.tinysoftware.com/home/tiny?pg=tpf_summary&la=EN&va=aa) and others.

I hope that answers the question. :D

[ITChrism]

Thanks, Eric, appreciate your comments & advice.

Actually I currently do not have the need for other wireless clients - just the wired desktops would be fine, though we often bring our business laptops from work and it would be nice to just connect to our Internet network wirelessly...

I'll look into the gateways you mentioned - this is exactly the information I was looking for :-), so thanks again.

Christian

P.S. - Please pardon my ignorance if I have inappropriately used the terms router, gateway etc....but for the past 15 years I've successfully avoided networks and stayed on the soft side of things ;-)

[ECGriffith]

No need to apologize about using the wrong terms. Not even the vendors who make all these products are entirely consistent between things like router, gateway, bridge, etc.

If you just want to share the Internet connection with your two already-networked PCs, I'd suggest you try either a regular hardware router OR you could use software. Windows Internet Connection Sharing might be all you need. There's many, many tutorials on setting up ICS at www.practicallynetworked.com.