Traveling with a laptop - can I use it as an access point for my other devices

[dave64o]

I think I found the answer to my question, but wanted to see what other people think.

Suppose you're traveling and your hotel doesn't offer free internet but you can get it if you pay for it. So I pay for it and now my laptop is conencted to the hotel's wireless network. Now I want internet access for our iPod's, my son's PSP, my wife's iPad, and whatever else we bring and use the connection we're paying for on the laptop. How do I do that?

WOuld a wireless router do what I want? I'm thinking that if I can find a wireless router that works via USB connection, I could plug it into a USB port on our laptop, use the router as an access point for my other devices by creating my own "private" network (like a 192.168.x.x network), making it a DHCP client of my laptop so it connects to the network my laptop is on, and then have it run a DHCP server so our other devices can connect through it.

Would that work? Is there a better way?

[Selta]

Orrrr you could just setup ad-hoc wireless on your laptop

[MJ5150]

What OS on your laptop?

-Mike

[RonGillman3]

Originally Posted by Ray Salamon

Orrrr you could just setup ad-hoc wireless on your laptop

If it has Windows installed on it you can do that. It's very simple to create and use, as long as you don't turn off your main computer (where all the devices are getting their internet access) you will have wi-fi to all your devices. I don't know to much about mac though...

[Selta]

It's pretty much just as easy on a mac.

[dave64o]

Thanks, guys. Couple of more questions...

I'm assuming that connecting to the hotel's network, whether wireless or wired, would be an infrastructure connection. If it's wired, then I could use my laptop's wired network adapter for the main internet access and then use the wireless for the ad-hoc that I'll use for the other devices we're going to have?

If the hotel's internet access is wireless, then .... what? If I'm using the laptop's wireless adapter for internet access then it sounds like I'd need a second wireless adapter (like a USB wireless stick) for the ad-hoc network that connects all the other devices? Would my laptop do the routing from my devices using the ad-hoc to the hotel's network that my laptop connects to?

I need to read up on ad-hoc networks . Never set up one of those before ....