you need a wireless client bridge as used for gaming consoles etc. They provide an ethernet connection to a wireless signal

that cable is for adding an Ethernet port to a computer that only has USB ports

presumably it isn't just a cable either.

A "usb to ethernet cable" would be as useful as a pipe fitting to connect mains water to the gas main.

There will be some electronics but not much, i.e. uisually squeezed into USB plug

Thanks for the unequivocal answer. I had a feeling that would be the case.

The sort of adapter I had envisaged would have had a USB socket, a circuit board, require power and have one or more ethernet sockets. It would look like a wireless access point, without the wireless part. I presume no such device exists.

As it is, I've come to the conclusion that I can probably run a cable from the LNB out on the HUMAX to the back of my Panasonic TV (a TX-L32D26BA), which has both Freeview and Freesat decoders built-in (the Freesat on that is currently unused given that the Humax box uses both LNBs from the satellite dish), and then use the wireless dongle in the USB socket on the TV to give me the required Internet connection for iPlayer on Freesat. Well, that's the plan.

I find it helps to think of USB devices as devices, and not USB as just some connector standard. A USB ethernet interface as MrS says is driven by the host computer, which needs to have the drivers for that and be configured to load them when the interface is plugged in.

For less than £30 you can get a wireless bridge with an ethernet socket to plug to but it's another box and PSU etc.

As detailed in the other fork of this thread, I've got another option of trying to get iPlayer on my TV, which involves running a satellite cable from my Humax box to my Panasonic TV, which is internet-enabled and has a freesat decoder built-in, so I will give that a whirl.

Failing that I'll see whether my spare DG834G router can be turned into a wireless access point.

In reply to a post by wheeles:

I was just hoping someone had encountered a similar situation previously and resolved it somehow.

Just record the programs on the Foxsat box, then you don't need to mess about with bandwidth consuming iPlayer.

Works with all the other channels, as well

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by wheeles:

I was just hoping someone had encountered a similar situation previously and resolved it somehow.

Just record the programs on the Foxsat box, then you don't need to mess about with bandwidth consuming iPlayer.

Works with all the other channels, as well

I trust you didn't mean to be as patronising as your post sounds. Yes, I do know what my Foxsat box can do.

Having iPlayer is a fallback for those situations when either I was not aware of a programme that I would like to have seen and only found out about after it had aired, or when a recording has failed (that happens on occasion).

As to bandwidth, I am on TalkTalk Pro, so that really is not a concern.

Humax boxes are known to be very picky when it comes to what works and doesn't work with them. Mine is connected via an ethernet lead which is straightforward and painless. There is some relevant discussion over on

http://hummy.tv