wifi wireless

I have a small home network with RH9 as the server to a dual boot
winxp home and RH9 client.

I am in the process of shopping for a laptop. I am wondering if
going for the wireless set-up would help me. (I have no
experience with wireless at all) My question - If I get a laptop
set up for wireless can I then use the laptop as the server and
provide faster internet service to the rest of the wired
network?

Can the laptop recieve wireless and than share eth0 wired to my
existing router? Is there additional hardware that I would need?

What difficulties should I expect to encounter?


thanks
joe

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I have a small home network with RH9 as the server to a dual boot
> winxp home and RH9 client.
>
> I am in the process of shopping for a laptop. I am wondering if
> going for the wireless set-up would help me. (I have no
> experience with wireless at all) My question - If I get a laptop
> set up for wireless can I then use the laptop as the server and
> provide faster internet service to the rest of the wired
> network?
>
> Can the laptop recieve wireless and than share eth0 wired to my
> existing router? Is there additional hardware that I would need?
>
> What difficulties should I expect to encounter?

Wireless is slower than wired.

Broadband is slower than wireless.

So, it's not going to matter too much, unless your gateway gets real
crappy wireless performance, who goes where. They can both *easily*
outrun the slow serial connection to your ISP.

Typically, it's easiest to just wire your home LAN and provide an access
point that lets your laptop get on your LAN and route through to your
ISP. That also adds a tiny layer of security, too, since you'll have two
networks then -- your home *wired* LAN and the wild and woolly
*wireless* LAN.

ISP - [modemy-thing] - LAN gateway -- machine 1
-- machine 2
-- machine 3
-- wireless gateway -- laptop 1
-- laptop 2

I hope this paltry picture helps out some.

The other way is to get yourself one of those wireless gateways. That
basically provides a switch for your home LAN *and* a wireless access
point. Then, all the machines basically connect to the gateway.

On your question about wireless and eth0 -- RH can certainly route the
traffic this way. You just need to turn on ipv4 forwarding. You can
probably do it with any of the Windows OS's, too, though the newer ones
make it easier for you. You don't say which OS you'd run on the laptop.

--
Bill

Bill wrote:

> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> I have a small home network with RH9 as the server to a dual
>> boot winxp home and RH9 client.
>>
>> I am in the process of shopping for a laptop. I am wondering
>> if going for the wireless set-up would help me. (I have no
>> experience with wireless at all) My question - If I get a
>> laptop set up for wireless can I then use the laptop as the
>> server and provide faster internet service to the rest of the
>> wired network?
>>
>> Can the laptop recieve wireless and than share eth0 wired to
>> my existing router? Is there additional hardware that I would
>> need?
>>
>> What difficulties should I expect to encounter?
>
> Wireless is slower than wired.
>
> Broadband is slower than wireless.
>
> So, it's not going to matter too much, unless your gateway gets
> real crappy wireless performance, who goes where. They can both
> *easily* outrun the slow serial connection to your ISP.
>
> Typically, it's easiest to just wire your home LAN and provide
> an access point that lets your laptop get on your LAN and route
> through to your ISP. That also adds a tiny layer of security,
> too, since you'll have two networks then -- your home *wired*
> LAN and the wild and woolly *wireless* LAN.
>
> ISP - [modemy-thing] - LAN gateway -- machine 1
> -- machine 2
> -- machine 3
> -- wireless gateway --
> laptop 1
> --
> laptop
> 2
>
> I hope this paltry picture helps out some.
>
> The other way is to get yourself one of those wireless
> gateways. That basically provides a switch for your home LAN
> *and* a wireless access point. Then, all the machines basically
> connect to the gateway.
>
> On your question about wireless and eth0 -- RH can certainly
> route the traffic this way. You just need to turn on ipv4
> forwarding. You can probably do it with any of the Windows
> OS's, too, though the newer ones make it easier for you. You
> don't say which OS you'd run on the laptop.
>
> --
> Bill

thank you for your reply. the laptop would also be dual boot as
there is no suitable program in linux for live streaming quotes
and acceptable portfolio management options, however in my
planned network attempt it would be the server and would be
running linux for security. On the road then I would still have
access to the data that I need.