Can I Network a Built-In 5720 EVDO Mini Card?

Hi,
I just got my Dell M1330 laptop with a built-in 5720 EVDO Verizon
wireless card. The laptop has Vista on it. Someone told me that you
cannot network to other computers (my Dell XP desktop) with the internal
Verizon card. They said I would need an external USB Verizon card and a
CradlePoint router in order to get internet on my desktop from the
wireless laptop connection.

Anyone had success networking an internal built-in card or is it true I
need to get the USB card to make this work?

Thanks!


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On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:32:59 -0500, ssd
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<(E-Mail Removed)>:

>I just got my Dell M1330 laptop with a built-in 5720 EVDO Verizon
>wireless card. The laptop has Vista on it. Someone told me that you
>cannot network to other computers (my Dell XP desktop) with the internal
>Verizon card. They said I would need an external USB Verizon card and a
>CradlePoint router in order to get internet on my desktop from the
>wireless laptop connection.
>
>Anyone had success networking an internal built-in card or is it true I
>need to get the USB card to make this work?

I think you should be able to share the connection with ICS (Internet
Connection Sharing) and a network connection between the two computers
(wired or wireless).

--
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Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

> I just got my Dell M1330 laptop with a built-in 5720 EVDO Verizon
> wireless card. The laptop has Vista on it. Someone told me that you
> cannot network to other computers (my Dell XP desktop) with the internal
> Verizon card. They said I would need an external USB Verizon card and a
> CradlePoint router in order to get internet on my desktop from the
> wireless laptop connection.

Using a router is one way of sharing the EVDO connection. But it's not the
only way. It is, however, a GOOD WAY to do it. Using a standalone router
lets you keep the network up and running without tying up a PC. There are
several of these routers available. I've got a PCMCIA aircard (whose part
number escapes me) plugged into a Linksys WRT54G3G-ST router. Works great.

> Anyone had success networking an internal built-in card or is it true I
> need to get the USB card to make this work?

You could try to use Internet connection sharing (ICS) on your PC. But it
comes with complications regarding how that PC connects to any other local
networking. As in, when you're using it to share it has to make local
network changes (to 192.168.1.0 subnet). If you needed to use both wired
and wireless at the same time this might be a problem. Not to mention
impact it might have regarding work policies on the wired network (as an
example).

Then you have the problem of how to share it back out again over WiFi. This
would require using an ad-hoc network, not one setup as an access point.
There are security issues with this. I can't recall what is or isn't
supported by ad-hoc networking but I don't think WPA is available. As a
result you'd be opening your laptop to potential abuse from anyone else
within WiFi networking range. Not necessarily a good idea.

So, yes, you "can" use the internal card for this purpose. But you might
not want to do so due to the risks and overall hassles.

I find it's easier to use a card (or usb widget) that's removable. That way
I can use it on several different laptops or in a dedicated router as needs
change.

-Bill Kearney