[TonyIC]

OK I know that is confusing.

Here is my situation. I have a cable modem in the house. From the cable modem it goes into the WAN port on a DLink DI-713p wireless router. Out of the back of the router it goes into my beige G3 server in my office downstairs. I also have a Pismo with an Airport floating around the house, but mostly it spends its time on my desk upstairs. On the desk upstairs I also have a Dell to work on Publisher documents for work and serving and stuff.

Currently I have a crossover cable plugged into the ethernet port of the Pismo going into the Dell. This provides internet on both computers through the magic of Internet Sharing. But, while internet sharing is working nicely I can not access the files on the Dell or vice versa. To accomplish this I must change the IPs on both computers and restart the Dell, transfer the files and restart the Dell to get internet sharing to work again. It is getting very annoying. It seems when I turn Internet Sharing on the Pismo forgets that it is connected to the Dell for file sharing as well.

How would a wireless PCI adapter be on the Dell? I transfer a large number of 500MB + files between them. I am afraid that the Wireless would be a much slower solution that wired.

How about a Wireless router/bridge setup? I could get two of them One to Replace the DI-713P and one to be upstairs being a router upstairs.

There has to be a simpler solution that I am just missing. Main goals are to share internet access on all computers and facalitate file sharing between My Pismo and Dell when it is on my desk (even better if while floating around the house as well). Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tony

[John Strung]

Both DLink and LinkSys make wireless-to-ethernet bridges. The LinkSys 802.11b model is the WET-11. They also make a G model. Don't know the Dlink part numbers.

In any case, what you could do is put the WET-11 or similar device upstairs and plug it into a hub or switch. Connect the PB and the Dell to the hub using ethernet patch cords.

The PB and the Dell would then file share using hard wired ethernet, and be connected to the downstairs network (and the internet) via the WET-11.

In effect, you would have an upstairs wired network and a downstairs wired networked bridged together by the combination of the Dlink base station and the WET-11.

[ghporter]

Remember, whether you put a wireless card in the Dell or use a wireless bridge, you're still going through a wireless link, with the same data rate limitation. In other words, no matter how you do it, any connection to the Dell that involves wireless will max out at the highest speed of the wireless system.