Extending a wireless network with a laptop

Sunstrand

Hi everyone, long time no post but whatever. I'm in the middle of Iraq working with an oil rig and came into Iraq super short notice, and we get wireless from the rig but only with some boosters that plug in with usb to laptops. What I would like to do is use this laptop to create a sub network in our little tin shack for our iphones and ipads. Preferably with a password if that is possible, and without any extra gear because we are pretty much on our own out here. Thanks guys.

BoomShake

You mention your laptop requires a "booster". I'm assuming this is just some sort of external wireless network adapter. Since most laptops also have internal wireless adapters, that would mean you have two. In such a case, you can do internet connection sharing from external adapter (receiving) to the internal adapter (broadcasting).

I know on a Mac it's pretty straight forward to select which adapters to use in sharing, but it shouldn't be too difficult on windows either.

Sunstrand

Yeah only have a couple of windows xp laptops. Old ass work lappies, the booster i mentioned is a USB network adaptor that has extended range that works fine but we have to be by a window. We are trying to tin foil them to combat the heat, und use are iPads to use the internet. Today got up to 50 degree c so it's kinda nice to not be by the window. I tried to share the network in windows but it says the ip address is taken and I'm not sure why or how to change it.

uean

Duplicate IP? Well, it's probably the USB and your wireless card using the same IP, but you can open a command prompt and type nbtstat -A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (the IP in conflict) to figure out what machine is using it. If you don't get a machine name but do get a MAC address it'll likely be one of your wireless adapters conflicting with the other
edit - see your Moe's Tech thread. Bridge bridge bridge!