Check out
www.colligo.com. They have a sofware that let's you talk to another WIFI card WITHOUT a WAP. With just two cards you can set up a peer-to-peer network that you can instant message, swap files, and replicate databases. Neat software. I'm like you I wanted to be able to talk to my desktop but I can't put in a WAP (corp environment). But I could buy two cards and have my own little newtwork. Check it out.
John