without much in the way of security. If you try to use WPA level security, the NIC you are using for an AP will disassociate and reassociate every time it connects to a different machine. That can devolve to almost a reassociate (including negotiating for keys) on a per-packet which would really suck. Static WEP doesn't have to renegotiate, but is easy to crack. You take your trade-offs and get what you pay for...

AP's have smarts in them for a reason. Somebody has to keep track of things and the radio firmware in not really up to it.

With regard to the original question, I am pretty sure that I have seen USB to PCMCIA converters, but I haven't actually got my paws on one. Further, most of the 11a radios are actually Cardbus which may not be covered by such a converter.

That's about my 2 cents worth,

Hugh