Portable WiFi Hotspot

Just read an article on NYTimes about the WiFi-to Go:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/technology/circuits/23pogue.html

They describe a product that shares existing Internet connection on your laptop. I was mislead by the title of the article and thought it was cool. I do not understand why you would want to carry a box to do this. If you have an Internet connection through 3G card or other methods, you can set up an access point in your machine (provided you have the right wireless card).

Here are some links to articles that describe how to configure your linux system as an access point (I bet you can do it with your Windows too).

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-wap.html
http://hostap.epitest.fi/
http://tuxmobil.org/wireless_unix.html

I do understand that for some people, it is just easy to get a box all set-up, plug-in and have an AP ready to share to 3G connection. The important thing to note is that 3G Internet connection is not very cheap (unless you have a proper plan).

A more attractive product in this case will be a small ARM-based embedded linux system with a PC card slot to connect to 3G Internet and serves as an WiFi hot-spot. Sounds like a good startup idea??

~Venkatesh