The setup I have that would accomplish your goal is this:

Hardware:
Compaq iPAQ 3650 (a 38xx would work as well)

Compaq *single* PCMCIA sleeve

Compaq serial cable, P/N 236250-001

Garmin eMap (on sale recently at frys for $169, back to $299 now)

Orinoco Silver card (with slightly 'outdated' firmware, see below)

Software:

MiniStumbler

CEniffer (packet sniffer, works in promiscous mode if you have an Orinoco with slightly outdated firmware)

vxUtil (ping, tracert, etc)

PocketLAN

This setup works very nicely for what you are trying to do.

The one downside is that the cable setup is a bit bulky ( I hate the ipaq serial interface, it feels like it will come out with the slightest pressure- but it works and I don't need a dual PCMCIA sleeve...


JDM