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If you can plug (via Ethernet or USB ports) your broadband connection straight into a Mac that has an Airport card installed, you can use the 'Software Base Station' feature to turn that iMac into a wireless base station (see the button at the bottom of the Airport control panel).

This saves you the cost of a stand-alone Airport Base Station. Of course, this means that the iMac connected to the broadband connection needs to be on 24x7. Also, the software solution probably runs out of steam (ie. number of machines it can concurrently support) sooner than the hardware solution, but hey! for small groups of machines it is fine. In order to connect another computer to the wireless network, you just have to buy another wireless networking card for that machine.

This works perfectly for either Macs or PCs. I have a DSL modem running into a home iMac via the USB port. I also have a Lucent Orinocco PC card that I use with my corporate IDM laptop, which gives me the same internet access and speed as on the iMac. If you run into any trouble getting both Macs and PCs working on the same network, the best place to find troubleshooting tips is:

http://www.macwindows.com

Cheers!
Andrew

For $400, the cost of two Airport cards, this is a sweet setup for home - a laptop just isn't meant to be tethered! I've used the 'Software Base Station' myself for almost a year, and it's been fantastic!!! There's only one catch: the 'Software Base Station' functionality isn't currently available in OS X. It's happily made a come-back in OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), but it's now called Internet Sharing (see below in the Feedback comments)

Robert Black

"This worked fantastically well. Took ten seconds to set up. I wish I known about this before spending $$$ on the Airport Express (which has now stopped working, hence my search for a new solution --thank you so much."

"I just bought a netgear MA102 access point and configured it using my PC (no dsl connection). I have an iBook with an airport card that is configured properly ( i think) since I can get internet access when I'm at the cafe. For some reason, I can't get internet access with my new wireless configuration. Is it the PPPoE? What should I do?"

"How do you go about setting up the Airport Software Base Station under Jaguar?
I can't find a helpful link anywhere on the 'Net."

[Robert: In Jaguar, they've moved and renamed the functionality previously known as Software Base Station, to the Sharing Pane in the Preferences, Internet tab (3rd along) - it's now simply called Internet Sharing. If you do a search for Jaguar and "Internet Sharing", you should find what you're looking for.]

If you're using PPPoE like I am (Telstra ADSL), you may find that for now the new Internet Sharing feature in Jaguar doesn't work, due to what appears to me to be a glitch in OS X's PPPoE with dynamic IP#s. I'm hoping for a fix soon, but if you're on a Cable modem or static IP number, it should work like a charm.

"The latest rumours thankfully say that the Airport Software Base Station is going to be back with OS X 10.2 (aka Jaguar)

http://www.thinksecret.com/features/jaguarreader2/"