Is it possible to set up a home wireless network without buying a wireless router? I want to leverage a wireless access point. I don't mind a static setup on the home PC but I don't know how to work around the network address translation issues without using a real router. I have two Windows XP laptops, one with Ethernet and wireless, the other with Wi-Fi only. My third computer is a Macintosh. The wireless access point has one Ethernet port, and I have an Ethernet hub.

You might be able to use the XP laptop with Ethernet and wireless as the router, using Windows Internet Connection Sharing, to provide a network bridge between a wireless LAN and the broadband connection plugged into the Ethernet port.

Microsoft documentation on this is available, and there is another good tutorial .

Data on using ICS with the Macintosh is available here .

Enabling ICS on the Ethernet interface of the XP laptop will perform the role of a DHCP server for your wireless LAN, plus the router functions. Make sure your wireless access point is not configured to be a DHCP server. Follow the steps in the documentation to enable the network bridge, and power up the second laptop to test the connection.