Is it possible to jury-rig Internet Sharing to share an internet connection wirelessly, when my Mac already connects to the internet wirelessly?

Question

I am trying to set up an internet sharing on my Mac so I can have a 'temporary hotspot' with lesser security so I can connect a DS to the internet when I want it, without changing my router's security settings.

The problem arises is that while I'd be sharing my connection over Wi-fi, the way the house router gets to my computer is through Wi-fi. Is it possible to jury-rig the system so that the computer can both connect to the internet router, and re-broadcast / share that internet connection to other WiFi clients, from the same AirPort card?

Answer 1

In short, not likely to be possible using a single Airport card.

99% of the time when a workstation's WiFi card connects to a standard wireless access point, it does so in WiFi "client" mode, which has certain physical (i.e. radio-frequency) requirements.

When operating in "client" mode, your workstation's WiFi card cannot act as a repeater or quasi-router for other clients. ("Ad Hoc" wifi mode can support multiple simultaneous connections to different devices, but Ad Hoc and Client modes are mutually exclusive.)

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What should work fine is for you to add a second, separate WiFi interface to your Mac, for example a USB-to-WiFi adapter. (cheap, $19! And no, I don't work for OWC.)

That independent WiFi interface can then be separately configured for Internet sharing to give your DS (or other devices) a "temporary hotspot" connection. USB 2.0 has a minimum latency of 0.125ms and an average bandwidth of 25 to 35MB/sec -- probably plenty for your gaming needs, unless you're going to be connecting more than 3 or 4 clients.

Also, this question is closely related to Wi-Fi Connection sharing on Macbook Air via USB dongle , which is still unanswered.