[Crusoe]

What I want:

Use a G4 cube to wirelessly route my DSL internet connection without having a cabled hub or airport base station, with mimimal cable clutter. I only want 2 maybe 3 things plugged into power and I need good wireless range (hence no APBS). I only connect with my Powerbook and my PDA and need wireless internet and file sharing.

Questions?
If I get a USB powered DSL router (I have one but it doesn't seem to have mac drivers) and hook it to my cube, what kind of range am I going to get by routing that connection to the airport card? Is this connection 1 to 1 or 1 to many?
This is the config with the least amount of cables I can think of.

What if I get a wireless DSL router? Are any of them USB powered? Do they maintain connection and do DHCP? If not how can I route this connection to 3 systems.

Currently I have a PC with a DSL router, Belkin WAP, wired HUB, 2 silly Cat5 to run from PC to Belkin WAP (tons of cables). I want to ebay my PC and all it's equip and just get a cube for routing and light use from my wife.

Any suggestions?

[ghporter]

Odds are that there are few, if any, USB networking devices available that support Macs. Darn shame, too. Anyway, what do you mean by "USB powered DSL router?" That's got me stumpped-I'm not sure what you have right now and what you're aiming for.

My guess is that you have a USB DSL modem connected to your PC, and you're using Windows Internet Connection Sharing to share through your Belkin access point. That's a pretty smooth way to deal with the USB modem.

There are numerous cable/DSL wireless routers available, but all of them have ethernet ports for the WAN (DSL) side. All of them have built in DHCP servers, and all of them probably have "keep alive" functions as well. The sticking point is going to be connecting with a USB modem.

If I'm on target, you should probably tell your ISP that your PC is down the tubes, and since everything else you have is Macs, you need an ethernet modem.

[Crusoe]

DSL Router/Modem. Some call them routers some modems. Anyway mine is an Ericsson HM120dp. It is powered and networked to the PC by a USB cable and connects to the wall mount via Cat5.

My ISP is swapping my modem out with a wireless one (for a small fee). That should help with some reduction, but my quest for few wires will continue.
Thanks

[ghporter]

It sounds like the wireless modem will be a BIG step toward fewer cables.

<rant>I am very unhappy with the industry for building dozens of USB network devices (from simple USB NICs (keychain sized!) to wireless NICs) but not bothering to write Mac drivers for them. Driver writing is not like writing major applications; the driver interface for Mac OS is not even difficult to use. I think some are affraid of licensing issues with Apple, while others are so tied to Windows platforms that they couldn't recognize machine code if it walked up and bit them.</rant>

Anyway, until the industry gets its act together, we're all going to have to deal with this sort of crud. We should speak up and get ISPs to demand products for their Mac customers!