wireless into wire

My son is going to set up an area in the basement for LAN parties...I haven't figured out what I am going to do yet, but was wondering if there is a way to do this wirelessly...

His LAN parties, although they probably want internet, mainly are for playing games against each other...but I do need to somehow get an internet wire into the switch they are going to be using...

A few years ago I bought a wireless into Ethernet adapter. I did have some problems with it ( it was for a client).... and I don't think I could run that into a switch? or could I? and do they still make these?

What would you do? Is there a way to setup another router to accept wireless as the WAN, and then act as a router serving up the internet from the wireless?

Reply to
paranoid
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That's a wireless bridge. Some clue as to the manufacturer and model number would be a big help.

However, I don't think he'll be happy with any type of wireless arrangement for gameing. I helped setup a similar arrangement for the local game freaks. It was all wired using common 100baseTX switches. Upon arrival, everyone complained about the "slow" switch and the effect is was having on latency, as if a few microseconds would make a difference in a reaction time type of game. Most of the gamers had gigabit ethernet cards installed. So, someone found two new Linksys 8 port gigabit ethernet switches and the festivities proceeded with minimal complaining[1].

I haven't tried exactly this, but if I planted the same number of wireless computers in the same confined area, there would be so much mutual RF interference that the packet loss would be horrible. It might be made to work with perhaps 3 wireless devices, but not with the dozen kids we had to deal with. Game servers also use quite a bit of broadcast traffic which tends to really slow down wireless networks where such traffic must be individually sent to each user. Also, to reduce latency, the system might be setup as an ad-hoc game network, where everyone talks to everyone else directly, and not with a central access point. I don't know if your unspecified wireless bridge would work in such an ad-hoc arrangement. Connecting an ad-hoc network to the internet might require ICS or some similar derrangement.

Incidentally, if this is a typical gamers party, be prepared to have all your ethernet and USB cables walk away after the festivities. Also, be sure to stock a few spare keyboards as they tend to attract drinks and food.

[1] One kid insisted that he use his shielded CAT5 cable to insure that none of the others would "interfere" with is data traffic. Sigh.
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Wireless bridge.

Use a couple of AP's that support bridge mode, or you could buy devices specifically listed as wireless bridges. Plenty of manufacturers offer them.

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

Well yeah, that's possible. The could also be playing online games from a game server on the internet, which will also work. In these situations, a single transparent bridge or possible a wireless "game adapter" that handles multiple PC's will work (depending on what's on the other end of the wireless link). However, since this is a temporary setup, I don't see any reason why they couldn't temporarily run 100ft of CAT5 down the stairs into the basement.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Those bridges arnt cheap, kind of makes it hard to not just run a wire....

What about this...

What if I installed a wireless card into the desktop, (hopefully it will reach), and then somehow setup some type of internet-sharing connection coming out of the windows xp box.....?

Reply to
paranoid

A Linksys WAP54 at each end? $50 each max? How cheap were you trying to get?!

You could do but then you'd have to buy the wireless card which given the hassle isn't that much cheaper than what you're trying to do.

A wireless bridge is the easiest way to go and hardly expensive. Look on ebay and you'll halve the cost.

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

I didn't think he was wireless for gaming, just for internet. I got the impression that the LAN was for the gaming?

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

The fastest 802.11b rate (11Mbits/sec) will yield about 3.5Mbits/sec thruput. No problem with a 1.5 or 3.0 Mbit/sec DSL connection. Major bottleneck for a 6Mbit/sec DSL or cable modem connection.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

That is very true...

And I already have a few outdated (802.11b) cards lying around, so no cost there....Not sharing any files, so 10 mps is plenty enough for internet....

Reply to
paranoid

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