Aircard to Airport for Wireless I-Net

On Sep 8, 2007, at 1:14 PM, adhocgraph wrote:

> We are trying to cofigure an Aircard via USB to give Internet
> access to a two-laptop network. I still can't figure out how to
> network the two Macs so that may be the key to this. But, once
> that's done, we'd like to be able to use Verizon or AT&T (or other)
> Air card to give both of us simultneous access to Internet.
>
> Has anyone done this? How did you do it?

I haven't done it but if the Aircard is listed in Network Port
Configurations under Network Preferences, it shouldn't be too hard.

In System Preferences click Sharing
In Sharing, click the Internet tab
In the "Share you connection from:" pull-down menu, select the Aircard
In the "To Computers using:" list check the option you plan on doing
- if you're using Ethernet or FireWire cables between the two
laptops, check the corresponding box. If you want to share via
AirPort, check that then click the AirPort Options button.
With AirPort you're creating an ad-hoc network so under Options you
can choose the name of the network, enable encryption, set the WEP
Key Length to 128-bit and choose a password (Channel can probably
left on "Automatic"). WEP encryption is really weak but by enabling
it you'll block the casual passerby and enabling WEP is an explicit
act saying "this network is meant to be private."
Finally, click the Start button and the laptop will start sharing its
Internet connection.

If the other laptop is using a wired connection to the sharing
laptop, you shouldn't have to do anything, it'll Just Work. If the
other laptop is connecting via WiFi, you'll need to select the
network name and enter the WEP password.

When Internet Sharing is enabled, the sharing computer pretty much
does what a typical home router does, it hands out private IP
addresses to the other computers using DHCP and it passes the other
computers' traffic back and forth using Network Address Translation
(NAT).

Speaking of home routers, there are a couple of routers that can
share cell-based broadband. They seem to take PC Cards rather than
USB dongles although the Kyocera KR1 Mobile Router says it can use a
"1xEV-DO USB phone." By using a router instead of Internet Sharing on
the laptop, you don't make one laptop dependent upon the other. Also,
a dedicated router will almost certainly support WPA encryption over
WiFi connection so it would be a lot safer than AirPort sharing with
only WEP.

For more information about specialty routers that receive connectivity via 3G device and then share that 3g connectivity with multiple computers, check out this chart maintained by the EVDO Experts at http://3gstore.com

http://www.evdoinfo.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,115/