Turning Wifi dongle into host?

[Jorophose]

Is there any way to turn a normal Wifi device into a host adapter?

Like make my PC a router?

I know Nintendo made one (but XP/Vista only) and there's this thing that might work under linux (but the drivers are binary-only?) and seems to work sporadically (am I wrong though?...).

Are there any really tried-and-true Wifi chipsets out there for linux, that can maybe work on MIPS as well? (I have a small project that involves a MIPS board)

[deanjo]

Is there any way to turn a normal Wifi device into a host adapter?

Like make my PC a router?

I know Nintendo made one (but XP/Vista only) and there's this thing that might work under linux (but the drivers are binary-only?) and seems to work sporadically (am I wrong though?...).

Are there any really tried-and-true Wifi chipsets out there for linux, that can maybe work on MIPS as well? (I have a small project that involves a MIPS board)

From what I'm understanding is that you want to use a USB wifi adapter on your computer to become a wireless access point, is that correct.

Crude ascii diagram....

Wifi device (such as wii, iphone, etc etc) ------->Computer with USB wireless adapter ----->internet

If this is what you are trying to do, pretty much any usb or pci wifi adapter can be utilized this way.

Here is just one of the many tutorials on the net.

http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/nethub/article.php/3467111

[Jorophose]

Thank you!

Any reccomendations on wifi chipsets to get?... I don't want anything too fancy; it just needs to be 802.11g, PCI or USB, and preferably something that I can easily shut off (so USB might be better). The cheaper the better.

It's for my DS and Wii, so being removable is good, that way I don't leave a WEP network running 24/7 for someone to break into. My connection is slow and capped, so that would not be fun at all...

Too bad the DSlite doesn't support WPA2, or I would just turn a desktop into a makeshift router/server and not have to bother with two wifi networks. But what can you do. =/

(I'm also assuming that a wifi card can't be used as host and device, right?)

[curaga]

Atheros. There's simply no other chipset with as good functionality; and I also use my cardbus atheros wlan adapter only for an access point for my DS

You could leave it always on, by only allowing your DS's MAC address. Also do cap it to 802.11b (max 11Mbps), because the DS can't do any better. Maybe also restrict the range. This along with WEP should keep everyone away as long as they don't want to bother hard with your connection.

The Atheros devices can be used as both a host and a device, at least most of them can; my card supports two virtual points, and one can be a client while one is an AP

[deanjo]

Atheros. There's simply no other chipset with as good functionality; and I also use my cardbus atheros wlan adapter only for an access point for my DS

You could leave it always on, by only allowing your DS's MAC address. Also do cap it to 802.11b (max 11Mbps), because the DS can't do any better. Maybe also restrict the range. This along with WEP should keep everyone away as long as they don't want to bother hard with your connection.

The Atheros devices can be used as both a host and a device, at least most of them can; my card supports two virtual points, and one can be a client while one is an AP

Ralink rt2400, rt2500, rt2570, rt61 and rt73 chipsets are also extremely well supported and full of featured.

[Jorophose]

Which is easier to find, though? (and are there lists of devices with atheros/those ralink chipsets in them?)

And what about my Wii? My connection is only 512k though, so I assume anything better than 802.11b is wasted...

EDIT: I was also looking at this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3345

I've never heard of the company that makes its chipset, though ("ZyDAS"). It seems like it will work since DX is supposed to have all of its items the same, in this case the 1201 chipset, but there's no confirmation and on the ubuntu forums there's a thread where it seems to be mixed sucess.

[curaga]

All devices which claim 108Mbps speed are Atheros-based (they have a patented technology to couple 2 channels for that)

[Kano]

ACX111 also had 108Mbit labels.

[Jorophose]

Found a ralink chipset that might just fit the bill!

"Ralink RT2571W MAC/BBP"

Is that Ralink 2500 you mentioned just a series? Like 25xx?