Router, 3 PCs and Wireless Internet Connection Question

[ADAM Web Design]

Here's a very unusual scenario a client of mine proposed to me, and I really don't know the answer one way or the other, so I'm going to pose the scenario and my theory and see if anyone else has encountered it.

Take a wireless router. Hook it up to 3 PCs. We'll call them PC1, PC2, PC3 for simplicity's sake.

Now...PC1 is a laptop. PC1 has a wireless NIC card provided by a wireless Internet ISP to access wireless high-speed Internet.

The client wants to share PC1's internet connection with PCs 2 and 3, due to the fact that conventional high-speed options (DSL and cable) aren't available in his area. So my idea is to enable ICS for the wireless Internet connection and hook it up using a second NIC (which I believe it has onboard) in one of two scenarios:

1) PC1 --> WAN Port of Router --> PC2, PC3

2) Router --> PC1, PC2, PC3 .

Personally, I'd prefer to use scenario 2) since I could also access PC2 (the print server and a file server) and PC3 (which could be made a file server). I'm thinking, however, that scenario 1) is more likely because PC1 would act as the modem/inbound communication for the router.

The thing is...I'm not totally sure if that's possible.

Has anyone tried anything like this?

Thanks.

[brian.mark]

Using ICS, don't you just do something like this:

Wireless -> PC1 -> Switch -> PC2, PC3

I've made that work for briding between houses before.

Brian.

[ADAM Web Design]

I don't know...hence the question.

And the thing is that if PC1 comes before the switch, can it still access the other two PCs?

[brian.mark]

Actually, it'd be more like below:

  Wireless
     /\
     ||
     \/
    PC-1
     /\
     ||
     \/
  Switch<==>PC-2
    /\
    ||
    \/
   PC-3

The 1st PC connects into the switch, not before it. A switch is just a central point, after all. You don't have any need for a router in this situation since PC-1 acts as a router. That's what ICS does.

Brian.

[ADAM Web Design]

Ahhhh. I dig now.

So PC1 = router.

Hub or switch (preferably with uplink capability, in case this twisted mess ever expands like it did from 1 PC total to 8 in 3 locations) connects all 3 PCs together.

PC1 acts as ICS and all three act as whatever other roles I want to assign to them (file, print, etc.)

If I've got it, thanks very much for explaining it. That ASCII diagram really came in handy!

But it does lead to one final question: are there wireless switches/hubs? The only reason I ask is simply because they're not going to want to run wire into the ceiling if they can avoid it, and I've never seen any.

[brian.mark]

Look for wireless access points or wireless bridges. Those will do what you're looking for. The bridges will work if you have several in one area and want to hook a switch into the wireless network. The access points will allow you to wirelessly connect to a network from many PC's.

Personally, I have a Linksys wireless router that I don't use as a router. I have it set up with the DHCP off and use a Linux machine (imagine that) as my router and DHCP server. This way, the wireless router functions only as an access point. I just set its internal IP as a different block (using 192.168.0.X for the LAN, have the wireless router as 192.168.1.1). It just routes the wireless stuff to the correct spot via the LAN ports (functioning as a switch) and it works swell.

192.168.0.1
   Router
     /\
     ||
     \/
192.168.1.1
  Wireless
   Router
     /\
     ||
     \ \~~~~~~wireless~~~~\ 192.168.0.X
      \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/ PC2, PC3, PC4

Does that make sense?

Brian.

[ADAM Web Design]

Not anymore, but I'm not really a networking guy. I can do it (usually) but I'm not one.

So in my configuration, would PC1 (the laptop) act as the router/DHCP server, since the wireless bridge/access point itself wouldn't?

i.e.

Internet-->PC1/DHCP/router-->WAP--->PC2, PC3

?

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Not anymore, but I'm not really a networking guy. I can do it (usually) but I'm not one.

So in my configuration, would PC1 (the laptop) act as the router/DHCP server, since the wireless bridge/access point itself wouldn't?

i.e.

Internet-->PC1/DHCP/router-->WAP--->PC2, PC3

?

ICS automatically sets up DHCP serving. PC1 will also act as the router. The WAP will just route traffic to an internal IP (based upon the DHCP config) to PC1 for those other machines and you'll get it passing everything else to the net and back.

Your simpler diagram would be accurate.

It really works quite well and isn't overly difficult to configure.

Brian.

[ADAM Web Design]

So all I need to find is a wireless access point.

That sounds easy enough...so naturally, I'll never be able to do it. :)

Thanks.