Ok, I'm ready to enter into the wonderful world of 802.11.
I just got an old laptop that (hopefully) will be able to
1) Dock with the docking station to give me eth0
2) Insert pcimcia 80211 card
3) Install linux and HostAP
It's only got one slot for the PCIMCIA card, so that has to be the wireless cxn.
And, from what I've read USB doesn't work with HostAP(yet).
I don't know the level of support that the linux kernel will have for the docking station's ethernet card...
I will just have to plug it in, and see whahappa.
You're asking why on Earth don't you just get an access point, or a linksys thingy...I don't know...
I'm enamoured at the possibility of not having to actually buy an access point. Those guys (HostAP) did a lot of work, and I'm more than happy to sit, read, and appreciate it.
Also...My house is cold, so the bigger the form factor, the better. In fact, I have a circa 1992 pentium FULL TOWER as my NAT/FIREWALL gateway that I use for my Internet connection. It's got two crusty old ISA ethernet devices in it.
The old fan buzz, and heat it gives off make me feel comfortable. I also can't stand putting old hardware out to pasture. With Linux and a NIC, it will always be useful... for something.
Wish me luck..I got thanksgiving weekend to work this all out.
Also, Happy Thanksgiving to all...
I hope I have alot of open source people to thank when I get it all working, and even if I can't get the HostAP to work with my laptop from mars because of the land-line martian ethernet docking interface...I still have alot of linux people and open source people to be thankful for.
--josh