kichigaimentat
02-15-2008, 12:27 AM
JoikuSpot (http://www.joiku.com/) will turn your Nokia phone into a WiFi hotspot using its WCDMA/UMTS/HSDPA radio as the Internet source. What's that? You've got a Windows Mobile device? Then WMWiFiRouter (http://www.wmwifirouter.com/) is for you! Currently, that project is on hiatus, but Google knows where to find the files. There are also 3G routers for EvDO services, if you don't want to tie up your handset.
scienceking
02-15-2008, 04:11 AM
The only problem would be how fast a phone could serve as a virtual WAP, and then how you'd boost the wifi signal to be as nice as they seem to be trying to make theirs, as I doubt any cellphone has an external wifi antenna port. Also, there is a difference between wifi chipsets that actually have a hardware WAP mode, and then ones that can basically multiplex between several client-client connections using software. The latter group do not perform very well in my experience and can lead to problems.
One nice hack is to find a wifi card based on a Zydas chipset(like the wifimax for the PSP/nintendo DS) or some chipset with a built in hardware WAP mode and then just stick it in a laptop with an EVDO card, and create a shared connection between the two. Its a simple-ish way to use your current laptop that you lug around anyway to do this, and you could hook an external antenna into both sides of the wireless gateway, and its cheap(assuming you have a laptop, just the cost of the evdo card/service, and then like 20 dollars for a wifi card). You could then buy antennas/wire up your car for better performance after the fact/as needed.