Yet another wireless question!

[randombs]

Seeing as my ADSL ISP (Homechoice) is USB-only and I'm not the bill-payer (so no posts recommending alternative ISP's please!) I'm planning on building a router.

I have all these bits that I've scraped together:

Socket 370 Motherboard w/onboard gfx, snd and lan
VIA C3/800MHz CPU
256MB Ram (detected as 128mb so dodgy, but may work. if not i'll buy proper stuff obviously)
Shuttle ATX PSU (250W)
10GB Seagate slimline 5400rpm HDD (from an XBox)
3-Com PCI Network Card

The idea is to shove all the bits inside an old Nokia satellite positioner I have lying around which looks nice and is low-profile - will also look good under the telly (where the homechoice set-top-box is located).

The USB Modem will be plugged into this 'router' which will have win2k server (or winxp or maybe win2003 but i'd need more ram i think) and it'll route, basically.

which leads me to my actual question:

I want to have the router wired to a switch (so i can use my xbox and pc on it) and also want to use my laptop via wireless

can i just get a wireless access point and hook it up to the router pc? will it bridge ok?

what about just sticking a wireless card in the router and doing an adhoc? my laptop will mainly be used in the living room (where the router is) anyway...

although i've heard adhoc is a bit lame

i'll try and get a GIF on here with a diagram of my idea

[gIzzE]

Why don't you just buy a wireless router/modem from dabs for ?45 ??

Just read up about homechoice so I now see why, there was s product about that allowed you to plug the usb modem into a router, I will have a search for it, you could then plug a wireless access point directly into it

[Ginger Tosser]

gIzzE, I think you might be thinking of the Draytek 2200 USB router, i used one of these for a few years with a Alcatel Modem. Bad news is they've discontinued these as the T&Cs of ADSL providers no longer insist on using their equipment.

Anyway back to your original question. ICS will not be a problem if you connect just a switch and hang other devices of that. Wireless should be o.k. as long as the routing is set up correctly.

I notice on the Homechoice website their WiFi is coming soon, might be worth asking how soon

[randombs]

Oh I did, believe me
They like to keep schtum about things like this, but quite frankly a simple 'in about X weeks' would be fine so that I can at least look at my options.

However if I make the router (which I most likely will), It'll still be able to route ethernet when the time comes.

What gets me a bit annoyed is that Homechoice's new STB works fine with wired ethernet - they've just been testing the wireless compatibility. Well excuse me for being a non-n00by, but I think I can handle that for myself...I wish they'd bring it out and then trial wireless support AFTER that (by indicating to customers that wireless support isn't finalised). Considering the number of STB' revisions they've had over the past year it wouldn't be too much hassle

[randombs]

as for that usb router, it would have been nice but i doubt my modem is supported - it's not actually a modem at all, it's just a usb dongle that connects the stb with the pc...