Building a wifi network using a dialup connection

[delusion3000]

Hi folks,

I only have a dialup connection at my place, to which i connect through my windows 7 laptop. Now I have several devices at home which i need to connect to internet (like: iPhone, Wii, another laptop and desktop).
I have the usual 100mb/S wireless ethernet adapter in my laptop. So what I had in mind is if it is possible to create a wifi connection from my ethernet, and bridge (or sometihng like that) my ethernet to my dialup, so I can see my dialup connection as a wifi network in my iphone e.g.

The problem is that I have no idea how to do that, or if that is possible in Windows XP. I would really appreciate any help around this.

cheers

 

[aem]

Hi, to achieve wifi connectivity you would need some sort of ADSL wireless modem/router, since you have dial-up. What is your type, or router type?

 

[delusion3000]

thanks aem, I only have a dial-up connection through my phone land-line, I use a cable dialup modem, so no router. I only have internet through a dial-up connection in my laptop, and I want to use my ethernet adapter to broadcast this internet connection through a wifi connection. Cant an ethernet adapter acheive that ? (in a way similar to creating a wireless network).

 

[delusion3000]

*bump*

 

[aem]

What is your wireless adapter's name? some have broadcast feature some don't.

 

[computersplus]

AD HOC

what you have to do is setup an AD HOC network to do this you need a wireless adapter on both machines set them in their adapter properties to AD HOC and make sure they are both on the same wireless channel and assign an SSID once you have done that on the machine that hosts the internet connection you will have to create a shared internet connection via internet connection sharing

have a look here for instructions

How to Set Up Ad Hoc Wireless Network in Windows Vista

 

[delusion3000]

My adapter is : Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG
I just tried the VirtualRouter app but didnt work, probably its not working for my net adapter.

@computerplus: I've been trying to work around the ad hoc wifi but as I believe, they still don't work if your internet is coming from a dial up connection! After I set up and ad hoc and connect my devices to it. I check the net status and it says : No Internet Access. From my iPhone and iPod it just tries to load and nothing happens. Do you know how to make it work for a dial up connection?

 

[computersplus]

It Works

It works I have done it, but it is what it is... dial up and not the best for networking but will work the last time I did it was with two XP machines

 

[computersplus]

Not Sure

not sure about the ipod and iphone like I said I did it with two XP machines one laptop and one desktop

 

[computersplus]

Devices

all devices would have to be switched to AD HOC network only... it's a pain because if you travel with those devices into a standard Wi Fi area you would have to switch back to infrastructure mode

 

[delusion3000]

Thanks computersplus, I know that dialup is not the best but its not like I have a a fiber optic connection on the shelf!!

In the iPhone, iPod, Wii or PS2, there is no option to configure the network, they just check the available wifi networks and connect to them! Any idea how you can configure the connection? can you do that from Win7?

Up to my info, the ad hoc doesn't work for dial-up, or through another wifi connection but I might be mistaken!

 

[computersplus]

AD HOC

what AD HOC does is set up basic wireless communication between two devices so one can talk to the other all you need is on the host machine to have the dial up connection be a shared connection that way you can have the client machine make the initial dial connection when it accesses the host computer just remember that the host computer has to be turned on for this to work

like I said it does work I have done it it was with XP but it I imagine it will be easier in the newer OS like 7

as for the mobile devices they have to be able to be set to AD HOC I can not think of another way to do what you are trying to do but if anyone else has any ideas as this has never been a popular subject

 

[RedBirdDad]

I did something like this a *long* time ago when all I had was dialup. I used ICS but instead of doing an Adhoc I used a wireless router that I configured to be just an Access Point. As you've found Adhoc isn't supported an all devices.

To get this to work you don't use the router's WAN port. Only the LAN ports.

Configure the router so it's DHCP server is *OFF*. You don't want it interfering with ICS. You want ICS to hand out IP addresses, not the router.

Reminder: Do *NOT* connect anything to the routers WAN port!

Connect the PC to one of the router's *LAN* ports. In most wireless routers, the LAN ports are really nothing more than a built in ethernet switch that's bridged to the radio. Then configure the router's wireless as you normally would: SSID, good security (WPA2-PSK!).

At this point you've bypassed the router function completely and are using it's radio like a plain old Access Point.

Set up ICS to share the *dial up* line. Any wired clients can connect to any to any of the remaining *LAN* ports on the router. ICS will act like a router through it's ethernet port.

Wireless clients can be configured as if they were connecting to any other wireless router. No Adhoc needed. That will allow the iPhone and iPod touch devices to work.

Like computersplus said, this *only* works if the main PC with ICS is up and running. What I found cool way back when was that ICS would dial up the connection automatically. No need to manually dial it. Any device that needed internet access would trigger the ICS box to dial out.

I used this setup for almost 2 years before I finally got DSL.

Nice thing about this setup is when you finally get DSl or cable, you already have the gear you need! Just reconfigure the router.

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck!

 

[computersplus]

Router

i was thinking about using the router idea I thought i had tried that back when I setup the AD HOC for the client but it was sketchy sometimes it would work and sometimes not i was able to get AD HOC to work stable but as I said it was only two PC's so it was fine wasn't sure about how to work it for the mobile devices my brain doesn't function in the dial up mode that's cave man stuff lol.....

 

[RedBirdDad]

ICS is a little tricky I know but I used it for about 2 years with out much of a problem.

What I found is Adhoc isn't supported by quite a few devices. Especially handheld devices. Laptops were usually ok.many years ago we tried using the Adhoc method for doing canned wireless demos for our sales group but found running an AP much easier and reliable.

 

[computersplus]

I Figured

I figured there would be someone who knew a little more about it around here got a good cross reference of folks from the IT industry here I normally have always been involved with high speed networks for as long as I can remember I really have not done anything that involved any kind of dial sense Windows 98 days I almost forget how to make a dial up connection lol......

 

[RedBirdDad]

 

[delusion3000]

lol! I am the cave man himself, just woke up, found a dialup connection and a bunch of wireless devices and a laptop with ethernet adapter. Still though I haven't got a wireless router, and my whole detour is to get them to work without a router.
In theory I cant understand why all the devices should be configured to an ad hoc network, when it is a wifi it should work. I found some stuff on other forums saying that dialup cannot be shared through an ad hoc, that is why you see something like VirtualRouter (google it) the problem is that it doesnt support my ethernet driver.

Have to dig more into it, but thanks for sharing me my misery!!

 

[RedBirdDad]

WiFi the way you're thinking of it only works in what's called Infrastructure Mode. This requires an Access Point or Wireless Router for all the devices to connect to. In infrastructure Mode, devices can't connect to each other.

If there's no AP or Wireless Router to act as a hub point, then the devices must be put into Adhoc mode. This allows the devices to form literally an adhoc network. There's no central hub point (for lack of a better term). Each device is a peer to every other device it sees.

You can share a device through adhoc, it depends on what you're trying to share. In your case, sharing a dial up connection. That sharing is done through ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) which functions as a router. The WAN port is the dial up modem and the LAN port is your wireless LAN adapter.

Generally wireless LAN adapters are clients. The connect *to* an AP or wireless router because that's all they're capable of. They're *clients*.

Some adapters have software that allows them to support AP mode. It depends on the manufacturer. Even then the support can be iffy. I don't know if your adapter supports it, I doubt it but I didn't check. Another issue is your although your adapter is "compatible" with Windows7, it doesn't have any native Windows7 drivers. The drivers are Vista and they're over a year old.