Wireless Daisychain?

Nov 24, 2005 3 Replies
T

I have a network problem I'm hoping someone can help me with.



I have a desktop that is connected to the internet through a wireless adapter. The wireless router is on the other side of the house, fortunately the wireless adapter on the desktop is strong enough to pick up the signal.



I also have a laptop in the room next to the desktop with wireless adapter that can not pick up the signal from the wireless adapter because it is too weak.



My question is: is it possible for desktop to act as an access point of some sort for the laptop to connect to the internet? Both machines are running Windows XP Professional, and the wireless router is connected to a broadband DSL modem.



Any solutions would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.


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J

I did see something recently about Microsoft coming out with software for XP to do exactly what you are referring to. You might experiment with adding a 2nd wifi card in your desktop. Or run a CAT5 from the desktop to the laptop and use ICS. Or the cleanest solution is probably to just get an wireless access point.

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J

What is "too weak"? The laptop or the access point? If the desktop can talk to the access point, then the laptop should be able to do the same. If not, perhaps it would be more productive to fix the laptop?

Well, I think you're asking if you can simultaneously connect to an access point and an Ad-Hoc client computer. Officially, no. It's one mode at a time. Either Ad-Hoc, where everyone connects to everyone else and there are is no access point, or infrastructure, where everything goes through the central access point and there is no connection directly between clients.

However, all is not lost. Microsoft to the rescue: |

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does exactly that. Be sure to create a "restore point" before installing so that you can recover if anything goes wrong, goes wrong, goes wrong...

Solution: Fix the laptop or get a better external wireless card (PCMCIA or USB)

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D

you could try running a second wifi card in your machine and put the card in adhoc mode.. pick a different channel to the existing wifi (very different) and then connect using the laptop in adhoc mode.

On the dual sifi card machine use windows bridging to connect the 2 networks.

Regards,

Doz

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