Ok, I live out in the country and I can't get anything but 56k or
satellite (not even considering that).  I'm moving my computer three
rooms away from our other computer.  We currently have them networked
and I would like to keep them networked, but I don't want to string a
line all the way through the house.

Is there a way we can use a wireless lan connection AND share our 56k
connection??  I talked to the guys at best buy and office depot, etc.,
and they said they don't have anything that can do that.  All the
wireless lan connections only work with cable/dsl.  Anyone know of
anything?  Thanks.

xemion-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by legolas-ga on 19 Nov 2002 09:59 PST

Please post what version of Windows you are using.

An apple airport or an Orinoco RG 1000 were designed to do just that.
In addition to being able to share a broadband connection, they
include a modem that can be used to share a dial up line. Seattle
Wireless has a hardware comparison list you may find useful [
http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/HardwareComparison ].

The orinoco website has a faq for their rg 1000 [
http://www.orinocowireless.com/template.html?section=m59&envelope=222
], one document of which explains how to set up internet sharing via a
dial up line [ ftp://ftp.orinocowireless.com/pub/products/telephone_install.zip
]. Actually, the apple airport (old version) and the rg1000 are
exactly the same hardware, with a different shell and software
included. If you wish to connect to the internet via AOL, you would
require either the software listed below, or the new version 2.0 apple
airport, which is the only access point I know of that supports
sharing a dial up aol line.

However, It is not even necessary to get an access point, so long as
the computer with a modem in your house is able to be turned on
whenever someone wants to use the internet. Over the summer, I used
the program wingate [ http://www.wingate.com ] to share an internet
connection using a laptop with both a wireless card and a 56k modem
with good results. It incorporates many of the features of the
wireless access points i mentioned, but only requires use of a windows
based computer to run. It can share access to a computer that is not
running windows, but the server must be run on a windows computer.

Search strategy:

Sifted through previous knowledge and personal experience

I trust this satisfactorily answers your question. If you feel
anything is missing, please request a clarification and I would be
glad to help further.

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Clarification of Answer by funkywizard-ga on 19 Nov 2002 12:32 PST

I agree that this solution is somewhat expensive for the apple
airport, but it should be noted that you can often get an rg1000 for
around $100 on ebay. Also, the wingate software comes with a 30 day
trial, and if you find it meets your needs, it would be a cheap
alternative.

Little on the expensive side, but maybe I can find it cheap somewhere.
 Met the requirements of the question.  Great answer!

I use a satellite connection and share my connection between 2
computers using CCProxy (http://www.youngzsoft.net/). It works
marvelously, allowing two computers to surf at the same time on the
same connect at about 400k-1100k EACH!

Hope this helps
tutuzdad-ga

If you're using Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP, and you're
using a normal dial-up ISP, you can use the Internet Connection
Sharing feature which is built into Windows. The downside is that the
computer which is connected to the net must stay on at all times, but
it's certainly the cheapest way. From then on, you can set up an
Ad-Hoc wireless network so there would be no need for an individual
access point.

seizer,

Yes, I'm currently sharing the connection using Internet Connection
Sharing.  Do you mean to say that I can just use regular a regular
wireless lan in combination with a modem and share the connection?  My
understanding from the best buy guys was that I needed a router type
thing to do this, etc..  Thanks!

xemion-ga

xemion: Yes, this is possible. ICS would work fine with the wireless
LAN too. If you need more information on this setup, you might find it
helpful to post a new question, requesting details on this particular
way of doing things.

I too believe the ICS could perform the task you need. I am not too
familiar with ICS, so I suggested the base station or wingate as
options. Actually wingate does something similar to ICS, except with
more features and better overall flexibility.