connecting to multiple hotspots

Theoretically it is possible, but requires two wireless links (laptops with a built in wireless links usually don't allow a cardbus or USB wireless link also)...May I suggest finding a free neighborhood hotspot that has cable instead of DSL? I have 768k ADSL, and was looking into it, until I found out Adelphia cable (in Coeur D'Alene Idaho) has almost 3000k downloads (yes, almost three thousand.. actually 2978k) on cable! Drove down to the local computer place (that had a free hotspot) and did the sp2 download in a few minutes.

In the unlikely case you didn't know, that's called theft, like in stealing.

No

Dear all,

I was just wondering: Can I wireless connect my laptop (XP) to multiple hotspots and bundle the connections? One of my neigbours forgot to enable wep, so I was thinking to bundle his adsl connection into mine.

Any thoughts in this ng would be appreciated

tks dickie

In my part of East Tennessee, Comcast Cable has 3000 down and 256 up. Provided network traffic is not overcrowded. Mine usually averages 2800 down and 236 up on my hardwired desktop, 1700 down and 200 up with my wireless laptop.

yes

He means no.

You can't connect one PC to two wireless networks with one card, and even if you could, or if you used two cards, you could not use both to connect to the internet simultaneously as traffic will only route to one gateway.

To use 2 or more broadband connections as a single connection, you need something called bonding, which some top-end routers and security devices can do. Its quite expensive and I'm not aware of any wireless bonding solutions of the sort that would link multiple APs to form a single virtual network.

I know, I totally agree with you.

Just for your information it's just a test. I am just wondering whether this would be possible.

dickie

What do you mean? That it's not possible with one wireless card?

dickie

to get an answer to your question you should have left out the juicy detail that gets all the attention.

but .. (if i may speak freely) i cant see any reason why it would not be possible, except that there isnt any software available that could do it.

gr

All it would need would be for the laptop's applications to connect to the Internet via a proxy. That proxy (or a separate load balancing software router behind it) then spreads multiple-simultaneous connections across multiple network connections. I've seen such stuff done a few years (5+ ish) ago for load balancing over multiple POTS or ISDN lines.

Of course, this setup would not speed up the download of single large files (e.g. a full ISO) but it could help for multiple downloads/uploads.

I haven't seen anything recently for Windows and WiFi connections, but if the laptop connected via a Linux box running squid with multiple WiFi NIC's it should be useable.

That's an over generalization. Linux can do bonding with the proper software, and said software is 100% free.

But can it bond multiple wireless adapters to form a single wired or wireless network? Quite possibly. Firebrick is linux based I believe tho it bonds wired networks.

And setting it up on a self-build linux box would however be a nonzero cost, especially . My experience of such things is that unless you're already a networking guru (and anyone who needed to ask the question can't have been!) then the cost of your time to learn, or someone elses to do the work, often outweighs the cost of a dedicated unit.

Which isn't want he has or wants to do. He has one laptop and wants to connect it to multiple wireless networks and gain the advantage of extra bandwidth. Putting in a proxy which bonds connections would achieve the end-goal, but not via wireless or without considerable cost and complication. Does anyone even have a wireless solution that bonds multiple wireless networks into one wired or wireless link?

Possibly.

I don't think this works because the card has to be tuned to the particular channel that is being listened to. Its like with any other radio. Notionally its 2.4GHz but in fact its a spectrum spread around that.

Someone just need to code a driver that will differentiate the packets coming from the AP's into to virtual wlan interfaces on the destination machine!

It probably wouldn't work with WEP enabled, unless it's decoded in software, too.

AP's are like beacons and client cards receive all the traffic in the air. Being "connected" to an AP simply means that it's only sending certain packets to the client PC.

Some, I'm pretty sure, somewhere out there is some programming hardware nut that has connected to 2 or more AP's with only ONE client card.

Heya assmonkey! You're sitting the whole pot miss. What we are talking about, is similar to taking one modem and plugging that one modem into 2 or more different phone lines at the same time. Well now, there you would get way more interference than in the air...

I understand what he wants. The POTS/ISDN version of this (which you cut) was all done *on* the client machine *in software*. The only additional hardware was a 2nd modem for POTS lines. To do this with wireless, the only additional hardware required would be a 2nd WiFi NIC.

A quick Google suggests the following would be able to (under Windows) handle the connection load-sharing over 2 WiFi NIC's:

More than possibly.