[Leica] Wireless Question

[hartzell at alerce.com (George Hartzell)]

Tina Manley writes:
 > LUG:
 > 
 > I can't do a search on this because I don't know if there is such a 
 > thing and, if there is, what it is called.  Out at the farm, I have a 
 > cable modem hooked up to a Linksys wireless transmitter so I can work 
 > on my new laptop anywhere on the farm.  Right now the Linksys is 
 > hooked up through my old laptop and I'm using my new laptop to work 
 > wirelessly.  I would like to give the old laptop to one of my kids, 
 > but I need a base station of some kind for the wireless connection to 
 > hook up to.  Is there such a thing or does it have to be another 
 > computer?  I don't need a big desktop computer out there like I have 
 > at home.  I only want to work on the new laptop wirelessly.  I just 
 > need something to connect to the Linksys.
 > 
 > I hope that's clear.  Thanks in advance for any help.

It sounds like your "Linksys" is some sort of a wireless adapter for
the notebook, and that the notebook is connected to the cable modem
and working as an access point.  Is that right?

  linksys <--> laptop <--> cable modem <-----> internet

It's actually possible that the "Linksys wireless transmitter" will do
what you need.  What model is it?

If it's not up to the task, the simplest thing to do would be to buy a
"wireless broadband router", such as the Linksys WRT54G:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G

or any one of a thousand similar devices (if you're a mac user, you'll
find the apple airport stuff easier but a bit pricier).  I've had good
luck with this particular device in several incarnations, so it's my
default choice.

It has one ethernet port that you connect to the cable modem and that
gives you access to the internet.  It also has 4 ethernet ports that
you can connect computers/printers/... to that are "inside" the
devices firewall.  Finally it is a wireless access point, so anything
with a wireless card can talk to it.  The 4 inside ports and all of
the wireless devices can share the internet connection.

It supports 802.11b and 802.11g, the majority of the wireless devices
out there these days, and the ones that you probably have.

They sell a spiffier version, with a "s" suffix, that uses some
propietary magic to increase the speed of the connection, but only if
you're using the right linksys hardware at both ends.

As you look around, avoid anything that claimes to support "pre-n" or
"pre 802.11n" speeds.  802.11n is the next step for wireless networks,
but they're having trouble making various devices play nicely with
others.

Drop me a note if I can answer any specific questions.

g.