Hi guys. The laptop I just added to my boinc farm is having a little problem. On attaching it to my net, I get net access with no problems. The guy has a desktop & wants to link them together. He won't buy a router as he has a wireless adapter.

As the laptop has wireless, is it possible to install the adapter on the desktop & link them together so that the laptop can access both the desktop & it's net access? If it can, where's the best place to get info on this?

I haven't seen anything like this other than hardwiring them together with a crossover cable. Even if you could do this, wouldn't you need 2 adapters in the laptop, one for each connection?

I suggested a crossover cable or a router, but they don't want the expense. the laptop has wireless & I thought that if they install a wireless adapter in the desktop, they would be able to see each other & also access the net - I'm not sure, but I personally think it would have to be bridged connection.

In my view, a router would be better, but they're cheapskates!

You could possibly use an old computer as a router. Here is a couple of sites I found:

http://dailycupoftech.com/2007/09/17/pu ... -good-use/
http://forums.pcworld.com/thread/20902

Routers are the best way to go
Even with one computer, the number of attacks on my computer(s) drop to nil after I installed a router
Plus if the the computer that accesses the internet goes down then any other computers on the network lose access too
The cost difference between getting a router or second wireless adapter to set up a network isn't that much

And if in the future they want to add a NAS(Network Attached Storage) they would have to buy a router anyways

With that been said

It's possilble from what I read on WIKI about wireless network, wireless access point and wireless ad-hoc network
But the wireless card has to be able to create an access point or Ad-hoc(Peer to Peer)

Routers offer security, accessablity, expandabilty and easier to setup
Wireless card to wireless card is slightly cheaper that all it's got going

Thanks Guys. I've told them that it's too much hassle for me & that I don't have the time. They're thinking of getting a router later this week.