Is this going to work? And what components are needed?

[simkeechai]

my factory located at a rural site where there's no fixed-line broadband access, and wireless GPRS is the only option for me at this moment. the problem i am facing now is that we are using the 56k dial-up service now, and the connection speed is really slow. having done some researches, i decided to switch to wireless GPRS connection (though still consider slower than ADSL or cable; but this is the only faster way to connect to internet than dial-up).

alright, here's the main part. in the factory office, i will use either laptop or desktop to make connection to the wireless GPRS connection, and use the laptop or desktop to broadcast the signal to a wireless router or wireless access point so that other computers within the factory office can use the connection simultaneously.
Question 1: Is this kind of connection going to work? (i think it is feasible)

if i use a laptop plus PCMCIA GPRS trotter card to do connect to the wireless GPRS, and use the onboard wireless g to broadcast the signal to wireless router/access point, and then further split the wireless GPRS connection to other computers within the factory office.
Question 2: How to configure the wireless g on the laptop so that it can connect to the wireless router/access point?
Question 3: If i use the router, what kind of function it will serve?
here are the options:
1. Automatic Configuration-DHCP,
2. Static IP, (probably not this)
3. PPPoE, (i think PPPoE will not work here)
4. PPTP,
5. L2TP, and
6. Telstra Cable

Question 4: Let say my office has three PCs and one Laptop, and if the shared wireless GPRS is going to work through Laptop, i will need extra three wireless LAN card or three long Cat 5 cable to connect t the router. Am i right?

please help me in this, because i am going to setup the network in the factory. thank you very much.

 

[hubbardt]

I think the way it would work is as follows

- Your laptop makes a GPRS connection
- Configure your laptop for ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) between GPRS card and inbuilt network card
- Plug cable from inbuilt ethernet card into wireless router
- Disable DHCP on wireless router
- Any PC connecting to router will get an I.P allocated by your laptop (the inbuilt card effectively becomes a DHCP server due to ICS). PCs can connect via wireless or network cable, whatever suits best.

The above method requires your laptop to have a cable connected to the wireless router. Someone lese may be able to suggest a purely wireless method but the above should work.

Good Luck !

Note - ICS will try and set your inbuilt card I.P adddress to 192.168.0.1. If your router also uses this address (some come preconfigured to use 192.168.0.1) then you will need to change the router's I.P

 

[simkeechai]

if i use the computer to serve as a gateway, can i replace Router with a 8-port Switch?

no other configurations are needed right?

 

[choknuti]

if i use the computer to serve as a gateway, can i replace Router with a 8-port Switch?

no other configurations are needed right?

You can do that and it should work but then you what will you use for the wireless connection?