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I'm trying to bridge some distance between a wired network and a wireless internet access point by setting up NAT using a wireless adapter - to that end I asked another question earlier.

However, I'm also considering another tack: getting a decent internal wireless adapter. Does anyone know of a wireless chipset that has solid, reliable drivers for 64-bit Windows Server 2008?

(I have some form of Atheros chipset currently in a Belkin USB wireless adapter, using a 64-bit Vista driver (athrxusb.sys ver. 2.0.0.130), and have had about 6 bluescreens today that I would pin on the driver - it's the only non-MS software on the machine, and the machine was reliable with a different install previously.)

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Barry Kelly
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3 Answers3

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Finding a wireless device that natively supports server 2008 might be hard, but let me give you a solution.

What if you use a router like the Linksys WRT54GL with a firmware like Tomato. Now, the advantage of using this solution is that the router can be turned in to a Wireless client instead of a Access Point the 2nd router will act as the wireless adapter, then you can tell the Wireless Client(2nd router) to either assign a static IP or use DHCP for any device connected to it.

I've included a small image. alt text

I can't remember if the default Linksys firmware supports the Wireless Client feature.

Hopefully this all make sense.

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Luis Ventura
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  • Interesting idea. It may end up being the way to go, though I'd rather centralize all net access from the internal networks through a single machine, rather than a single router, not least because there is more than one network I'm trying to share net access to. But adding another network adapter dedicated to this router may work... – Barry Kelly Aug 15 '09 at 07:44
  • I've made an order for this part, and some other approaches. Thanks! – Barry Kelly Aug 16 '09 at 16:13
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Note that for many devices, the W7 drivers will work fine (and in some cases are identical) to the Server 2008 drivers.

Anyway, my suggestion to you is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WES610N-4-Port-Dual-Band-Entertainment/dp/B0056VP0KS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1330038414&sr=8-4

Connect the wired NIC on the server to one of the ports on the back of the bridge, and the server won't know any better. Like another poster mentioned, this isn't exactly best practices, but sometimes you have to make due with what you're given :)

user1080519
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I'm happy to be told I'm wrong about this but wireless in a server, any server, makes my tummy feel funny - it feel 'wrong' to me somehow, there's almost always a better way of achieving your goal.

Chopper3
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