combo wireless and wired home network

[Cowles, Steve]

Harry Putnam wrote:
> Before getting in to deep, I'd like to hear a few comments on how this
> could be done:
> 
> I have no wireless experience so may have the lanquage and concepts
>   somewhat askew...
> 
>   I want to use a wireless connection for 1 computer on my home lan.
> 
> My machines (5) sit behind a NETGEAR dsl router/firewall.  Everything
> is currently cat 5.
> 
> I want a wireless hookup behind the router.  Some thing like:
> 
> 
>                 INTERNET
>                   |
>                 DSl MODEM
>                   |
>           NETGEAR Router/firewall
>           |                  |
>          M1                 M2
>                             .
>                             .
>                             .
>                             []
>                             M3
> 
> Where M2 is setup gatewayed (hardwire) to NETGEAR ROUTER and is itself
> a gateway (wireless) for m3.  So it needs a regular nic and something
> that makes a wireless accesspoint.
> 
> Is there such a thing as a pci card that is a wireless accesspoint?
> Or maybe M2 needs to be an actual hardware wireless router.
> 
> M3 is a laptop that I'd like to be able to connect to the lan from
> anywere around the grounds.  Like in the garage or etc.
> 
> Its an older Tosh 4005 but I'm guessing somekind of wireless nic
> exists for it.

Based on the above, I can think of a couple of options for implementing
wireless.

1) Replace your current Netgear firewall with a combo wireless
accesspoint/router/switch. Both Netgear and LinkSys have models that would
allow you to use your existing CAT5 wiring and add wireless capabilites.

2) Add just a Wireless AccessPoint (WAP) and plug it into an open swithport
on your current netgear firewall. Again, both Netgear and LinkSys have
models with "just" the wireless accesspoint without the router or switch.

FWIW: Option 2 is how I implemented wireless at my home. I already had CAT5
wiring throughout the house using a 16 port 10/100 switch (I use a linux
based firewall). I bought a LinkSys WAP54G and plugged it into an open
switchport, then bought the PCMCIA wireless NIC for my laptop. Works great!

With both options, you would still need to buy the Wireless NIC card for the
computer/laptop in the garage.

Steve Cowles