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Part III
Challenging
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135
Project 20
Bridging a Gap,
Wirelessly
What You??™ll Need
A wireless bridge??”aka gaming adapter
Your computers with web browsers
Cost: $30??“60 for wireless gaming adapter
For some of us, it is relatively easy to expand our network with wires. We ???simply???
crawl under the house or in the attic, run some new wires, drill a few holes, install
a couple of RJ-45 jacks, plug in, and go. For many people??”apartment dwellers,
house renters, locations with impenetrable ceilings and walls??”expanding a network
connection that requires wires at both ends is at least a challenge, if not impossible.
While a laptop may network wirelessly over relatively short distances, walls,
pipes, electrical cabling, and distance can inhibit connectivity. Taking an example from
popular gaming consoles which have only a wired Ethernet port, some computing
devices such as network-capable printers, simply do not connect and network without
an Ethernet cable. A solution is to use Wi-Fi hardware to extend your network as far
as you can without wires, and then return to wires using the wireless bridge where
necessary.
Typically, you would specifically look for a pair of wireless bridges??”devices designed
to ???bridge the gap?????”but these devices are usually not in stock at even the most
geeky of electronics stores. If you already have Wi-Fi capability at one end of your
network, you can bridge the gap by adding just one easy-to-find device??”a wireless
gaming adapter.
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