Windows 2003 and USB wifi NIC?

June 12, 2007 9:33 AM

Is anyone using a USB wireless NIC on a Windows 2003 server?

I am trying to find a USB wifi NIC to use on a Windows 2003 server. The Netgear WG111 I have tried doesn't support Win2K3 server and I am having a hard time finding one that does. Linksys doesn't seem to have one, per their support department.

Is anyone doing this, or have they done it? What brand worked for you?

note: it absolutely HAS to be USB - I'm not able to access the internals of the machine.

posted by TeamBilly to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

note: it absolutely HAS to be USB - I'm not able to access the internals of the machine.

USB's not the only way to get wireless without going inside the machine. I would use an Ethernet bridge instead. A cable goes from the (wired) Ethernet jack on the server into the bridge, which does the wireless magic, and the server doesn't know anything about it -- it just thinks it's connected with a wire. USB wireless drivers on 2k3 sounds like way too much trouble for what it's worth.

Here's one from Linksys as an example.
posted by mendel at 10:42 AM on June 12, 2007

Best answer: A Linksys WRT54GL with alternate firmware (I like tomato) can act as a wireless bridge as well. I agree with mendel, finding a usb wifi card with driver support will probably be more hassle than it's worth.
posted by tracert at 10:56 AM on June 12, 2007

Response by poster: This is a great idea, and actually I have a WRT54G laying around here....



....but it's a v5 (running Vxworks) and cannot be hacked.

Have to look for an older one. Ebay, here I come.

Thanks for the tips.
posted by TeamBilly at 2:51 PM on June 12, 2007

Best answer: Actually, if you're not using that V5 for anything important, there is a way to get DD-WRT micro on there without a JTAG cable or any other hardware modification. I've never tried it, but it seems pretty simple to do if you're up for it.
posted by tracert at 7:09 PM on June 12, 2007

Response by poster: Damn. You posted that right after I bought one preloaded on Ebay. Oh well. It wasn't much. Now I'll have two.
posted by TeamBilly at 7:20 AM on June 13, 2007

Response by poster: The operation listed above worked perfectly. Tracert, you are the MAN.
posted by TeamBilly at 9:21 AM on June 13, 2007