I'm wondering about LinkSys WAP-11 utility

Sure, I know what I need, but I'm just curious. I need one of those little usb easy plug-in wireless networking devices in order to get my living room computer linked to my home network. They're certainly cheap enough!

Anyway, I have this old clunker, the Linksys WAP-11, and I was likely-erroneously convinced that it would turn any ethernet-capable PC into a wireless node. It says right in the instructions that it will not recognize or link to Ad Hoc networks, and that's what my Versalink DSL modem/router has going. It also says right in the instructions, "must be connected to a hub or switch". Well, I don't know for absolute sure from those terms. So I was just wondering if someone would set me straight about this and then I'm going straight to eBay and get one of those USB doodads.

Well, the WAP-11 instructions suggest the device's utility, as a repeater for example. About my Versalink 427W DSL router: I can get all the way into its control panel and mess with everything there, like your SSID broadcast toggle, and MAC authentication and of course encryption, and your "long/short preamble" and all that racy stuff! But I see nothing about changing from Ad Hoc to Infrastructure. Is this baffling, or is this normal?

Just curious if maybe I could force my WLAN to be Infrastructure at its source, then would the WAP-11 successfully pick up on and link to the DSL router's wireless transceiver, and make this new PC of mine a wireless node? Right now the WAP-11 just gives error, "Network device not ready" when I try to Autorun the device's software from its CD.

OR... am I just spinning my wheels because my DSL router already is a Wireless Access Point, and the WAP-11 is not intended to serve lesser/slave stations.

Have I made myself clear?? I hope!

You haven't made yourself clear enough for me but we do usually have questions for info that the users' wouldn't even know that we need. Alright are you wanting to know if you can use your computer which has a wired connection to your dsl modem to act as a server and provide internet access to other computers directly or thought a wireless router or is it through a usb wireless adapter? Please be clear how your computer is currently connected to the internet, how you would like to connect it to the internet. And the Linksys WAP-11 is it a wireless router? Are you saying that the modem has a built in router?

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Thanks for replying. Sorry if I wasn't entirely clear.

YES! ..the DSL modem has a built in router that can route to up to 3 hard-cabled nodes (PC's), as well as any number of wireless nodes. I am currently using both features, linking to one other PC that's hard-cabled to the router, and another PC and occasionally a laptop that transceive wirelessly. Now I am adding yet another PC to that array, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I could connect (to the new PC) this antiquated old piece of equipment, the LinkSys WAP-11, which is a Wireless Access Point, supposedly with much utility/flexibility, to bridge wirelessly across to my DSL modem/router.

That didn't work upon first try, and I was merely wondering if that is because I misunderstood the concept of the WAP-11, or was it because the DSL router seems to be stuck on the notion of defining an Ad Hoc network instead of an Infrastructure network. That is where the format of the WLAN gets defined, is it not, in the Control Panel (ie. firmware browser interface thingy) of the DSL modem/router?? Because if it is, I have explored every nook and cranny of that control system, and I don't see any way to change to Infrastructure. The WAP-11 should link Ok if the existing WLAN were of the Infrastructure type -- assuming I understand the WAP-11's instructions correctly, which state clearly that Ad Hoc networks WILL NOT be recognized by the device.

It's nothing

It sounds me like you are wanting to use your device to receive a wireless signal and strengthen it out perhaps to increase coverage. Is that correct? Your best bet is to hard wire the router to the dsl modem/router. The firmware installed in the router is programmed just to take a wired connection and use that to connect other computers to the network through wireless adapters. They are not designed to send and receive to/from other routers but you can look in the router's configuration to see if it has an ad-hoc setting. There is some firmware that gives you more flexibility in configurations but I don't know what it is and I can't vouch for it. Perhaps someone else can help on this.

Hey, many thanks for trying!

Well, the WAP-11, as many geeks surely know, is not a router ('far as I know), but rather it's merely a Wireless Access Point, as in W-A-P.

Okay, I can buy that some routers give more flexiibility than others. My DSL modem/router (yes, it is a combo device, absolutely) seems to create an Ad Hoc WLAN, with no provision for modifying that. That seems very odd to me, since it is a very state-of-the-art modern device, that VersaLink 427W from Verizon. Hey, maybe Verizon got the manufacturer to fudge the firmware, just to suit the Verizon company, and Verizon wants Ad Hoc to be the static choice. Again, it seems a bit odd, but I can't say with any certainty.

I guess a Wireless Access Point (WAP) is unable to transceive ad hoc, or it must serve the router side directly, never a remote node. Then I misunderstood. No, I didn't want to use it as a repeater, but that provision suggests some versatility and I thought... well you know.

It's nothing

No I don't understand what you wanted to do. If you are wondering you can use it for wireless in place of your modem. Just connect it to an ethernet port on the modem and turn the wireless off on the modem.