If this device exists, what's it called?

[JonJ678]

I'm looking to add wireless to an existing wired network, but not quite sure how to. The terminology in this post will be a touch eccentric, as I don't really know what I'm doing yet.

I have a dhcp router with a spare ethernet port. Instead of connecting this to a switch, to which I connect a couple of laptops to with wires, I'd like to connect it to a "black box", to which a couple of laptops connect wirelessly. Aside from a probable decrease in bandwidth, I'd like it to behave identically to the simpler wired layout.

I'll worry about securing the wireless network after I've found out what I need to do to achieve this. I imagine it's possible to limit connections via the dhcp server in the router even if encryption is unavailable.

I'm fairly sure I can take a generic wireless router, tell it to behave as a switch, run a cable to it's wan port then leave the lan ports empty to achieve this result. This feels excessive though, as such a device is far more complicated than I'd need it to be.

Please name my desired "black box" to make Google a little less difficult for me

 

[JonJ678]

Ah, brilliant. Many thanks. It seems D-link make something appropriate here, though I agree the pricing seems rather high. Supply and demand I suppose.

Current router is something of a work in progress, a diy box made from spare parts running Debian. If I can get it to behave I'll migrate to an embedded system running one of the bsds. Neither BSD nor Debian have a strong track record with wireless, so keeping that in a different box makes life easier. Doubtless Cisco would be leagues better, but I don't understand how so wont loose any sleep over it.

Thanks again

 

[JonJ678]

Thanks for the suggestions. Using a standard wireless router seems to be the cheapest option, with the possible exception outlined by Chaos. Thank you for that document, it's the best work I've read on the subject so far.

Cheap and easy, expensive and easy, or cheap and difficult. Food for thought certainly.

Cheers