In DOS with the Aironet 350 you're supposed to be able to list the available APs and then configure manually (could probably write a nicer tool to wrap them) but in Win3x there was no way to list the APs - unless the DOS tool worked there too.. hard to know, because all of the DOS software for it wouldn't work for me.
The Aironet 350 is SUPPOSED to support WEP, and the drivers have places for WEP keys, etc.. so at least some form of encryption is intended to work, but in practice I could not get it to associate when WEP was set up. Not a problem with the card, btw, because it does WEP just fine under Linux (it's an Atheros card, so it's also good for Linux.. 802.11b only, though).
Speaking of chaining a router to a machine... I did something even more hilarious. I had my Panasonic Sr. Partner set up as a terminal to a laptop running BSD which had the Aironet 350 in it and was connected to wifi. I wanted to do PPP and dial into the laptop to give it a more legitimate connection, but couldn't get it working on the BSD end. Anywho, I had wifi on DOS 2.11 on a Sr. Partner with an 8088.
I then dragged this Sr. Partner (and laptop combination, to use Links for www when needed) around college for about a month and did all of my work on it, printing using the internal thermal printer when needed. I was so bored during college... I was acing every class, but I dropped out due to stress and boredom. Anyway that's beyond off topic now, so I'll leave it there - lol.