To be honest, I am somewhat new to linux, and the purpose of this project is partially to learn a little more and have a little fun.

I have a p4 2.4 with 512 ram, 80gb hd etc. And I want to build a wireless router with it. I am wondering a couple of things.

First, can I use a wireless connection as a gateway? I have another wireless net in my parents' house (where i am living for a few months), and I would like to be able to use this router to extend the range of our current wireless network (which does not currently reach my bedroom here). So basically, instead of plugging this computer in to my modem, a wireless connection would be made to my other router, which would route to my computer-router (I guess I would disable DHCP on my comp-router).

Second, what wireless cards should I buy? I've heard good things about atheros. Range and speed are very important to me. Price is not as important.

Third, what distro should i use? I have been using debian based distros until now (debian, and ubuntu).

Fourth, can this machine still serve files while it is a router?


Thanks in advance,
James

I think if you were to make the network ad-hoc.. that might extend the range. If not, I'm not sure of any other way. If the ad-hoc mode works, you won't need to make the box a gateway, it would just pass the packets on to the correct IP. Again, I'm not sure about that.

I've used both debian ubuntu for wireless boxes. The current linksys 802.11b pci card will work with ndiswrapper and I also have a usb adapter with the atmel chipset that works by downloading and compiling the atmel drivers (the brand is xterasys).

Fileserving and any other network service works just fine even when you're routing packets

Hope that helps a little