Wireless Query. Can my PC be the router?

[Drenholm]

I moved house a while back and shortly after got Virgin (UK) cable Broadband. The cable came in downstairs and my PC goes upstairs.
I thought I'd have to set up a wireless network since renting means hole drilling was out of the question so I purchased a D-Link PCI card (DWL_G510) and borrowed a wireless router to have a go. Then I found a hole had already been drilled in a suitable place and have since then just ran a cable straight to my PC.

Now I've just bought a nice new laptop and want to setup wirelessness. I had to give the router back so I'm just left with the D-Link adapter.

My question is can I have my PC connected to the cable via.. a cable and use it as the router (with internal PCI router or something if they exist!) to which the laptop and any other devices will connect or must I have a seperate router which both my PC and laptop will connect to.
I'd prefer to keep my PC connected directly.

Also what's the difference between a router and an access point? I'm not that up on wireless so if someone can give me a few pointers that would be great.

Thanks all!

Nick

 

[LookinAround]

An access point only provides one function: an access point to connect wireless devices to your LAN. A router provides any number of different functions in addition to providing LAN connectivity for multiple devices such as port forwarding, allowing you blocking access to user defined URLs, etc.

I don't have a definitive answer as to whether you can use your PC as a router but (just my off-the-cuff-opinion) as cheap as you can get a basic router it's probably not worth trying to configure (and buy any extra h/w) to use your computer as for your router function

 

[Nodsu]

Yes, you can use the PC no problem. Assuming that you have Windows, read about setting up an ad hoc wireless connection and internet connection sharing (ICS)

Mind you, this will be very unreliable and the laptop's connection would depend on the state of the PC. As LookinAround said, any wireless router would be better.

 

[DelJo63]

Also what's the difference between a router and an access point? I'm not that up on wireless so if someone can give me a few pointers that would be great.

here's a write up with some details.

to be noted: An Access Point does not have NAT nor DHCP so it will depend upon
a router being somewhere upstream near the modem.

Every LAN network needs at least one Router which may include WiFi support.
A LAN may also have one or more Access Point(s).