Hardware advice for WinGate Proxy Wireless network

[taton]

I run a small business at a university incubator, and I'm looking to set up a Windows XP box as a dedicated wireless proxy server for notebooks. I'd like to do this partly for mobility, and partly because I don't control router, IP address assignment, or network configuration issues in my building. (We just pay $500 per static IP address, and these addresses must be used by computers not networking equipment.) We currently run a Windows 2000 Server as a Primary Domain Controller for file sharing and user/permissions management for 4 desktops (all w/ static IP), but Active Directory and DHCP are off per the incubator's network rules.

I love what I see about WinGate's ENS function--it looks like exactly what we need to add computers to the network without paying for new IP addresses, to let them roam around our labs, and to set them up to use the PDC's user settings. But--and this question probably shows I don't know what I'm doing here--I can't tell what kind of wireless networking equipment to buy. I've been to all the networking companies' websites, Linksys, Netgear, etc., and they all sell equipment aimed at home users who plan on plugging routers into their cable modems. I've called some of their sales & support staff, but they haven't been too helpful; they all want me to plug their access points into my incubator's LAN router, but the incubator won't let me do that.

I'm not going to buy WinGate until I know I can set up the equipment. (Actually, I can't even demo WinGate until I set up the equipment.) Can anyone lead me to websites or resources on how to set up a Windows box to proxy serve? Or is this a really stupid question?

[taton]

Okay, I found some useful info since this last post, oddly by searching for info on crossover cable. (Apparently, this is how I'll connect my second NIC on my XP box to the access point's RJ-45 "cable-modem" port.) I'd still be interested in any advice anyone has on the subject though. Thanks,

Andy

[Nev]

Okay, I found some useful info since this last post, oddly by searching for info on crossover cable. (Apparently, this is how I'll connect my second NIC on my XP box to the access point's RJ-45 "cable-modem" port.) I'd still be interested in any advice anyone has on the subject though. Thanks,

Andy

Hi Andy,

It should work well, anyway you'll discover just how well when you install the mobile clients.

Probably it would be a good idea to have the clients on a different sub net [the clients / access point / inbound nic] relative to the upstream host configuration.

Just add the default gateway to each client and DHCP in the Wingate box will do the rest, or you can specify all the details if you wish.

Check the adaptor usage in Wingate [external / internal] and NAT will do the rest.

Report back how you go.

Nev.