What this kind of device called?

IIRC= "If I Remember Correctly", *not* internet relay chat.

-- Louie Gainesville, FL (eat the flies to email)

"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." Dennis Miller

We're thinking of going wireless in a new building but don't want to have to install wireless cards in all existing PCs. Is there a device that works like a little hub/switch but instead of it's uplink being a physical wire, uses a wireless connection to an access point? The idea would be to simply plug the existing PCs in clusters (four per desk) into this "wireless hub". And I realise "wireless hub/switch" isn't probably the right name.

Thanks, Rob.

"Rob Nicholson" wrote: [I wrote]

Well, you can certainly live on the bleeding edge if you want to...

How many machines are you talking about, and how many wireless phones? I think you'll be disappointed with the speed, reliability, and security, but maybe that's my experience with consumer/SOHO level products speaking, and you'll be using some enterprise-class wireless infrastucture stuff that'll solve all your problems. I possibly mistook your initial post to mean you didn't want the _expense_ of installing wirless cards in your existing PCs...

Yes. It's called a "workgroup bridge". 3Scum and Cisco both make them under that name. They limit the number of simultaneous client connections to 4, 8, or 16 depending on the number of ethernet ports or whatever. Essentially, it's a "multiple MAC address ethernet client bridging wireless adapter". Whew!

16 devices | 4 devices | 8 devices: | There are others...

Other than the workgroup bridge boxes, you can also use a WRT54G or GS with alternative firmware, to act as a client adapter. I think the limit to the number of clients is about 253 with one of these. DD-WRT firmware recommended. Look for "client mode". |

Are you completely off your tree? ;-)

It's not necessarily to do with cost but flexibility. We're also looking at wireless telephony as well. We fully realise that this is the edge of technology right now but we're a forward looking company.

Speed isn't primary importance to us - we use Citrix so bandwidth requirements are a) low and b) predictable.

Cheers, Rob.

Agreed, I did that for an office that we didn't expect to be in for very long. Got an 8 way DECT base station and then connected that to 8 land lines which used the BT virtual exchange features. Could have done it with Voip but not enough upstream bandwidth in my case as it was on the end of a 2M/256 DSL.

David.

Why in internet relay chat?

Barry ===== Home page

We're not quite brave enough yet to go VOIP for our incoming/outgoing calls so that'll be still ISDN-30 into the building and then straight into a VOIP software PBX. We're considering Swyx at the moment for the PBX primarily because it's specifically Citrix friendly.

Cheers, Rob.

We're considering a small DECT set-up as well but most of the phones will be plain desktop VOIP phones. That's one of the reasons for trying to find out if the device I'm looking for exists. Wireless Ethernet VOIP business handsets are pretty rare and therefore have a high cost base with unknown reliability. Wired VOIP Ethernet handsets are reasonably common and tested.

Cheers, Rob.

I know how you feel, took me ages to find a desktop DECT phone instead of a simple cordless phone type.

David.

Which one did you find in the end?

Cheers, Rob.

Thanks Jeff, just the ticket.

Regards, Rob

It was one by Topcom which was only about 30 quid. BT now offer one too which is about 3 times that price if I recall correctly.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Rob.

Get a WAP54g or WRT54g and then get a couple of WET54g's The wet54g is a wirless bridge with a 4 port switch. I have two of these in the kids room in diffetent parts of the house and they work great. One has a laptop and ethernet printer attached and the other has two desktops and an HP 7410. Any one can print to any of the printers. The kids also videoconference between different parts of the house. But it does get a little slow with four cameras going at the same time.

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If you prefer Netgear a WGR614v5 does the same thing I'm using one here with a concrete and wood structure and get over 400' from my router. It has

4 wired ports also and I have a wireless printer port so anyone on my network can use one printer at anytime it's stand alone with a PS121 netgear print server. I use WG111's for my wireless hook ups since they are USB's it make laptops etc. very easy to hooh-up. You can also setup the WGR614v5 router to another wired router if you need more ports say you have a wired 5 port now and you get the WGR614v5 and at that location you need lets say 7 ports wired. You would use your internet connection DSL cable modem, dial up modem , etc. into the WGR614v5 it hooks up in a different wired hookup to your existing router giving you a wired access point their at 9 ports plus your wirelesses. I like the USB wireless WG11's because it frees up my pcmica slots and the cost is less per unit. And it is 108.11b or 108.11g wireless rates auto switching, but I run mine locked to 108.11g since all mine are and it keeps the sppeds up on the wirelesses at 54mbps... Tweaker. ____________________________________________________________________________ ___________________

Wireless telephony has been around for decades. Google for mobile phone and cordless phone.

Barry ===== Home page