weltall

Ok, laptops -

Mine - Dlink DWL G630 Rev C3 PCMCIA 802.11 b/g
Hers - newer Broadcom built into her Presario C502US

We grab internet from our neighbor who lets us, if the router were in the room my card could pick up to 700kb/s easy, but since it's through a wall or two... but her built in wireless card gets a much faster connection.

(It's not my version of linux... any version of linux is slightly better with my card than windows is. but still not a solid connection like her laptop)

can I connect the two some way wirelessly? can I hook up to hers and steal her internet connection? or can I run a ethernet cable to link ours together and get some way to nab better access? any ideas? thanks.

Her laptop has Vista on it, but probably not for long.

tpl

two parts to your question
1. how to hook 2 computers up wirelessly
(not hard, but try hardwired 1st)
2. how to use a direct (crossover) connection
to share an internet connection

when you say "vista but not for long" I hope you
mean, some version of *nix. Let us suppose so.

the secret is so-called IP-Masquerade, wherein the
machine with the net connection--dial-up, wired,
wireless, it doesn't matter--runs a short script
appended: you'll need to get appropriate kernel
modules and other facilities--whilst the 2nd
machine, that wants to piggyback, runs (as root)
this command:

route add -net 0.0.0.0 gw \
<whatever.IP.the.1st.machine.has>

there's not much to it. This machine is sharing a
connection w/ another, the other on wireless.

here's the script:

#!/bin/sh
# Basic firewall and forward/masquerade setup

PATH=/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin

# Delete/Flush old iptables rules
iptables -F
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -X

# Set up IP FORWARDing and Masquerading
iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface wlan0 -j MASQUERADE

echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
#
#on other machine
#route add -net 0.0.0.0 gw <appropriate.IP.addr>

__________________
the sun is new every day (heraclitus)

weltall

sweet.

I've been showing her the happiness that is with the flavors of linux I could put on her laptop... I'm going to dual boot her laptop so she can play with it in her own time.