BSS (Basic Service Set) defines the use of an AP to pass station-to-station traffic. in fact, the Sputnik managed access points which we are now deploying in hotspots (www.sputnik.com) specifically preclude station-to-station transport through the AP for security reasons (e.g., if I get an IP of 192.168.1.10, and you get an IP of 192.168.1.11, we cannot ping one another).    

Presumably they can if the AP is set as the default route...

 

In answer to your initial question, I would imagine that it is possible to build an OS/2-based AP. It would be quite an undertaking, though!
  

       

Well, it's basically an absence of drivers. I don't think any software exists which would enable an OS/2 system to work in Infrastruture mode, but I would have thought it could simply be used as a router to the Internet, if only there were OS/2 drivers for an ADSL NIC.



     

The lack of drivers isn;t the entire issue, I don't think. Essentially, in order to function as an AP, the driver needs to be set into promiscuous mode. If Jens' drivers don't do this, implementing it shouldn't be a big deal, as this is fairly well documented. Once that's out of the way, I would guess that my initial knee-jerk response was overly pessimistic. You're right about the routing issue, though an AP - by definition - doesn't route; it bridges. This, however, shouldn't be difficult to do.

Also, there's no such thing as an ADSL NIC, AFAIK.    

Really?

Check this:-

http://www.solwise.co.uk/adsl-pci.htm


 

You would use a NIC to connect to an ADSL bridge, which would be considered part of the customer premise equipment. IOW, the OS/2 box would have two NICs: one wired and one 802.11. The 802.11 would have to be put into promiscuous mode, and there would need to be some facility for allowing it to beacon (announce its SSID), I would imagine (it can be done without beaconing, but every client would have to have the SSID in order to associate). security would be another consideration (WEP, WPA, 802.11i, EAP, etc.).
   

Here is something I would like to do using OS/2:-

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-wap.html

But I would like to stick an ADSL-PCI card in as well.

I suppose I can dream :-)....


 

If I managed to build such a box I could stick all my server software on it such as mail/web/ftp/dns as well as a proxy server and provide a gateway to an internal network, ie a box which you can just plug into a telco socket and provide instant access for a number of users. I'm sure a proxy server would provide better Internet access than having several users accessing the Internet individually. You could also build in some access control. I don't see how you could do it otherwise.