[ieatdots]

>With a slightly more expensive dongle that can transmit as well as receive, your laptop can pretend to be a wifi access point or a cell phone tower...

I understand the point being explained here, but is this really accurate? I don't know of any SDR platform, let alone a "dongle" with anywhere near the capacity necessary to operate as a wifi AP.

[ieatdots]

Maybe I'm wrong here. Looks like bladeRF and USRP B200-series have the bandwidth, sample rate, and data speed to do 802.11b.

Maybe some radio smartperson can clarify?

[nknighthb]

The USRP B200 sales page actually says it can be used for WiFi. It also says "up to" 56MHz of bandwidth -- if that's actually available in the 2.4 and/or 5GHz bands, it should be able to implement 802.11n which uses 20 or 40MHz channels.

(802.11ac is out of bounds, its channels are 80MHz minimum.)

[conformal]

seriously?

it's been possible to operate a variety of wifi cards in host AP mode for like 10 years or more. have a search and you'll see this is easily doable.

[bct]

That paragraph isn't talking about a wifi card, it's talking about a software defined radio.

[freehunter]

Internet Connection Sharing could be used with a full-duplex wifi card to enable an AP mode.