A way to wirelessly relay to ethernet base?

[qua]

A friend's Airport card stopped working, and it wasn't the card. After an afternoon with Apple they decided it was something else involving hardware. But ethernet works. Is there something that will receive the wireless signal from the cable router and allow a short ethernet cable to be plugged into it. The cable is two rooms away and they don't want to run a long cable. Other solutions? Thanks for any help.
Jim

 

[mkrishnan]

If I understand you, in essence you need a wireless gateway. You can buy a dedicated one or you can use most routers that have wired ethernet ports. You plug it into wall power in the other room where the computer is; configure it to *join* the network rather than creating one, and then wire the computer to a LAN port. The other thing you could certainly do is a USB wifi adapter....

 

[Eraserhead]

Something like this would work.

 

[rogersmj]

As mkrishnan said, you may want a wireless bridge or utilize a wireless router. Be careful though, as not many consumer wireless routers have the ability to function as clients to other wireless networks.

I think a USB wireless adapter would be cheaper and easier than the wireless bridge.

 

[qua]

forgive my ignorance

but, a usb wireless adaptor - what the heck is that and could someone point me in the direction of one so I could check it out. Sounds good but I'm not very good on hardware issues.

 

[qua]

found a few but

they keep talking about windoze compatibility, etc. Do I have to be picky here?

 

[mkrishnan]

they keep talking about windoze compatibility, etc. Do I have to be picky here?

Yes, you do. Don't buy anything in this arena unless you've heard of it working on Macs. So many Macs have come with built-in wireless for so long that the market for USB WiFi adaptors is pretty minimal....

I can help with some googling... but I've never bought one, so I don't know what works.

 

[TowerRat]

USB adapter

but, a usb wireless adaptor - what the heck is that and could someone point me in the direction of one so I could check it out. Sounds good but I'm not very good on hardware issues.

Google is your friend

Here is what I use.

I have used both operating systems with it.
Good Luck

 

[qua]

thank you

Amazon had that one and one described here: http://www.welovemacs.com/mawlusb.html

I checked out some recent reviews of each and am trying the latter. I don't know what I would do without these forums. Thanks loads.