wired/wireless bridge: a more surefire Linux wireless solution?

[James Miller <jamtat@mailsnare.net>]

This question is not really Linux-specific, and is maybe more
hardware-oriented than OS-oriented. But being a Linux user, I'd like to
know if/how it might apply to me. It concerns a comment I read regarding
an article on wireless networking with Linux, and it's really something I
had earlier wondered about, though in less specific terms. So, to go on
with my query.

It seems widely accepted that Linux has spotty support for wireless
networking--at least I read articles and comments to that effect with some
regularity. I wondered, when I first confronted these sorts of problems:
"why couldn't a wireless receiver-type-thing just be hooked up to a Linux
machine's wired NIC to connect said machine to a wireless network?" I
didn't really appreciate the technical aspects involved when I first
thought of this, but now that I've read someone's suggestion about using a
bridge to do just this sort of thing, I might understand better.  The
person responding to the article I was reading was basically saying
something like: "why bother with the software problems (lack of drivers
and documentation on chipsets to write them) associated with hooking to a
wireless network in Linux? Just get a wireless bridge and hook it to your
wired NIC and get on the wireless network that way."

So, let me just ask: is this really some sort of solution to the wireless
support problem under Linux? People objected to that poster's suggestion
on the basis that it was too bulky (extra pieces of hardware like the
bridge and its power adaptor). Maybe it's a bit more expensive, too. But
if this really would work--i.e., allow you to connect to a wireless
network through your existing wired NIC--it could be a solution for at
least some situations. Possible cons would be that a lousy old 10/100
wired NIC can't match the throughput of the latest 801.11g wireless NIC's
(to which I say; big whoop! 100mbps suits my all my needs and more).
Certainly an enterprising hardware manufacturer could address the
bulkiness problem: I have an external HD, for example, that draws 6 volt
power from the ps2 port. Of course the possibility always exists--and is
in fact quite likely--that there's already some device that does this,
i.e., sort of augments your existing wired NIC with wirless capability
and that I simply haven't run across it yet.

Feedback will be appreciated. I've probably overlooked or poorly
understand many of the technical details.

James
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