Soft wireless AP/Routers coming...

Internet access solution provider PCTEL today announced its SegueSAM Soft Access point Module for Wi-Fi networks. The product lets any PC equipped with a wireless LAN card and connected to a broadband network to function as a wireless access point and router.

PCTEL hopes that its product will lower the cost of establishing a WLAN, much as Microsoft's Internet Connection Sharing feature lowered the cost of sharing wired Ethernet connections by coming bundled into various Windows OSes.

SegueSAM will not be offered to consumers directly, but will be delivered as part of various wireless and/or computing products. PCTEL is pursuing manufacturers of retail 802.11 client adapters, chipset suppliers, motherboard manufacturers, and "wire-line" broadband service providers. The product will be commercially available starting in Q3 2003 , but PCTEL didn't name specific products or suppliers.