Server 2003 as Wireless Access Point / Router

[AnthonySterling]

Hi all,

[in Brief]

Currently I have a wireless router in the living room with a laptop connected to it, the laptop has a 160gb network share on it.

My question is this, can I just scrap the wireless router, connect my cable modem direct to my laptop, add a USB wireless dongle, install Windows 2003 server and somehow make a PC based Wireless Access Point / Router??

It seems a bit pointless to have 2 items drawing umpteen amount of watt-age when 1 could do....

Ideas?

A guide to perform this would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

SilverB.

[Mr. Dick C. Normous]

It is possible, I've been doing it for the last six months. It's not really worth it IMO. You will have to run special hardware and software for it to work. I use this card and run a program named "Marvell 802.11g SoftAP Configuration" on my rig. It works well enough on a stable pc but the range isn't quite as good an actual wireless router. I'm saving up now to buy me a decent router.

[ihtfp]

It is possible, I've been doing it for the last six months. It's not really worth it IMO. You will have to run special hardware and software for it to work. I use this card and run a program named "Marvell 802.11g SoftAP Configuration" on my rig. It works well enough on a stable pc but the range isn't quite as good an actual wireless router. I'm saving up now to buy me a decent router.

I have the same card under a different label. Mine is an Encore ENLWI-G. Any chance you could point me to a source for that "Marvell 802.11g SoftAP Configuration" utility? I haven't found it anywhere but the Marvell website, which looks like it requires some kind of company affiliation or something to get the files (I didn't bother trying to obtain a copy from them - I'm an individual, not w/ a company).

This SoftAP utility wasn't included with Encore's driver CD either. :(

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[+BudMan MVC]

It seems a bit pointless to have 2 items drawing umpteen amount of watt-age when 1 could do....

So the point of this is to save money on your power bill? Have you calculated how much power a wireless router uses?? Your talking pennies!!

From a quick search, looks like a linksys wrt54g uses less than 6 watts

http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Hardware/Linksys/WRT54GS

total power is always arround 5.3 W

Using this calc

http://www.csgnetwork.com/elecenergycalcs.html

the lowest they have 6 watts, but even running that for 720 hours in a month your looking $0.44 in your being charged the national average of $0.10120 per KWH)

Figure out what the power consumption of your router is -- and do the math.. But its PENNIES!!

So you want to run a wireless Card in your server.. This card will draw power as well! Really about the only thing drawing power in the router is the wireless card.. Open one up.. pretty much a wireless card with some added circuitry.. So where is the cost savings?

Can a computer with a wireless card be used as a wireless router/bridge -- sure with the correct hardware and software.. But to do such a thing when you have perfectly good router as a cost saving measure is just, well crazy! ;)

BTW - if you do find software that runs on 2k3 and a wireless card.. There's a good chance its not going to be FREE, nor would I think it would support all the bells and whistles of a dedicated wireless router, or one running some 3rd party firmware..

Edited November 2, 2006 by BudMan

[MazX_Napalm]

Not to mention that routers have NAT, firewall, dhcp and mac filtering in a very easy to use format. You don't have to worry about updates, AV and the likes. There is also less chance of the device being hacked.

Look at the newer routers. You can have NAS, usb sharing (ie printers), web servers, ftp servers and even a bittorrent client/server. All for less than the cost of a set of hard drives and wi-fi card.

There are also a lot better solutions to Server. Look at ZoneCD or Zero-Shell for that "wi-fi hotspot" setup.

[ihtfp]

Ummmm, I'm just lookin' for a utility that's compatible with my wifi card (Marvell 8335 chipset). I'm well aware of the plethora of routers which are plenty capable of being both very useful, and efficient on power consumption.

If anyone can help me out, great! If not, oh well. Thus far, two replies and no help.

[+BudMan MVC]

Ummmm, I'm just lookin' for a utility that's compatible with my wifi card (Marvell 8335 chipset). I'm well aware of the plethora of routers which are plenty capable of being both very useful, and efficient on power consumption.

If anyone can help me out, great! If not, oh well. Thus far, two replies and no help.

So you try an hijack a thread, and then complain when nobody helps you ;)

What chipset is that card? Marvell W8300 ? If so - thats the same as the WL-138g, is it not? Which they provide the softap in their driver download

WL-138g

ftp://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/...8g/Eng_2265.zip

Description The ASUS WL-138g WLAN PCI Card utility release note and utility progrm in English, version 2.2.6.5.

a. The ASUS WL-138g WLAN PCI Card utility progrm in English.

b. Utility release note(2.2.6.5)

1. Update: SoftAP Driver v.2.5.0.6.

Which should work -- I would assume.. here some info on setting it up from a search for WL-138g softap

http://www.nat32.com/nat32e/htm/asus.htm

[ihtfp]

Yeah, I'm apparently hijacking a thread. Sorry. :D

Chipset is Marvell 8335 - identical NIC to the person who posted post #2 in this thread. His post is the main reason I'm posting in this thread - he claims to have a utility which I require, and the only difference between his card and mine is the sticker over the metal shielding.

The Asus drivers won't work (been there, done that, no go). I've tried drivers from a lot of places, some with SoftAP, some without, and with few drivers working (the Marvell generic drivers seem to be best, providing WAP2 capability, where the manufacturer's drivers don't). Aparently the SoftAP utility is embedded with the Asus driver/config utility, as it will not run - it says "hey, I don't see an Asus card, I'm exiting," because I don't have an Asus card.

I'm hoping "Mr. Dick C. Normous" might still have a copy of this utility approximately 3 weeks after his post in this thread.

[Mr. Dick C. Normous]

Here are the utility and driver files. Sorry it took so long, kinda forgot I posted here! If you cannot download from RapidShare let me know, I'll put it somewhere else.