[vox-tech] Wireless-to-ethernet bridges

[Daniel A. Lorca-Martinez]

>I finally have no choice but to get a wireless interface for my home
>workstation. Given the difficulty with changing chipsets and poor driver
>support, I am thinking of a ethernet-to-wireless bridge, which is alleged to
>bridge a one-device ethernet network to an existing wireless network with an
>existing access point, all without any drivers on the PC. Here are two
>products, both by Linksys, that claim to do just that:
>
>http://www.buy.com/prod/Wireless_G_Game_Adapter/q/loc/15625/10351886.html
>
>http://www.buy.com/prod/Wireless_G_Ethernet_Bridge/q/loc/15625/10346525.html
>
>The second is about twice the price of the first.
>
>My questions are:
>
>- Am I on the right track going with an ethernet bridge?
>
>- What reasons are there to prefer the more-expensive device? I loathe
>   wireless networking and so would prefer to spend as little as possible. I
>   am not really interested in special features.

Well, here's what I can tell you from my personal experience.  I paid 
someone to get aPCI wireless card working on my Linux boox at home, 
and it cost me about as much as a bridge.  Then when I wiped the 
drive, well, square 1.

I have both the Linksys Linksys WGA11B and the Linksys WGA54G game 
adapters.  Amazon has them tax free though :).  The wireless B 
adapter currently runs $44 on amazon (versus $90 on amazon for the G).

They work fine, I have no problems getting connected, and they will 
likely save you lots of headaches.

There is one word of caution I'd offer though.  If you use MAC 
address filtering (like I do) you might spend forever trying to 
figure out why the connection is there, but doesn't work.  SOLUTION: 
Make sure both the 10/100 bT NIC *and* the Wireless MAC addresses are 
on the access list.  Once I did that, everything was peachy.

Good luck!  If I can offer any more help, feel free to contact me 
directly at lorca at u.c.d.a.v.i.s.e.d.u without all the periods :).

-dan