Can I turn my laptop into a Wireless hotspot

Hey this is my problem, bit of a newbie when it comes to techy things, so here it goes.
I've moved into a new flat, and have no legal broadband. I can jack into a neighbours unprotected signal but I don't really want to do that.

I do have a Nokia N95 that I can access the internet from and can plug into my laptop to gain access to the web. Sorted I can use my laptop with the web.
My laptop is an Advent 7081, running XP and I have an EDIMAX 54Mbps USB2 EW-7318Ug Wireless Dongle.

I'm looking to use my Wii and xbox360 online. I spent the money on the xbox wireless adaptor so I'm wanting to know if I can turn my laptop into a wireless hotspot that my Wii and 360 would be able to connect to. I'm aware the speeds won't be the best but they should do for overnight system updates.

I believe there should be away that I can broadcast but not entirely sure how to go about it.

If not is there anything special I'd have to do if I was plugging an ethernet from either console to the laptop?

might be cheaper/easier to get a bt line and broadband.
online gaming is going to use a fair bit of bandwidth and through a mobile phone it is going to tot up to your limit quite quickly. besides, using 3g for gaming apparently gives really bad pings (300 or so...)

if you have an o2 line then you only pay 7.50/mth

also using the internet on your phone can be really expensive.

that being said you can set up an adhoc server and select share internet. it should then work similar to a wifi router. i did it once before while i was in the school dorm. i would set my desktop running on cable to to share internet and then setup an adhoc wifi server. i can then connect to internet from my laptop.

good luck

works the same if you have two ethernet ports i think

I'm only in hte new flat for 6 months so a btline and broadband I cannot get.
The ping is actually alright so far, at least for world of warcraft.
I have an unlimited data package. I pay a fiver a month and I get the internet for free from 7 at night and all the time at the weekends.

How do I set up an adhoc server, and then share it?
Thanks for the help

that unlimited usage thing isn't actually unlimited though.. it'll be capped by a fair usage policy. probably 1 or 2GB or something like that.. and once you've used that up, they start charging you HUGE prices for the rest.

You can do it with internet connection sharing, look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126
But I would really check your T&Cs if you have an unlimited contract you may not get charged but you will probably get cut off if you exceed the acceptable use policy.

As long as you monitor your usage you should be fine though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sys-req

You can do it with internet connection sharing, look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126
But I would really check your T&Cs if you have an unlimited contract you may not get charged but you will probably get cut off if you exceed the acceptable use policy.

As long as you monitor your usage you should be fine though

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Cheers, I'm fully aware of the cap in place but beggers can't really be choosers...