Complicated Network Setup- Need a starting point
 

Hello,
As the linuxquestions forums have always been good to me I am going to ask what I consider the worlds best IT group how to set a linux box up like this:

Situation:
I live in an apartment building that provides free wifi internet (Wayport Access) to the residents. But I must logg into a web-based 'tracker' as I see it that registers the wireless cards MAC address and allows the box to connect like normal. However I only get one access code, and I have at least 1 PC and 1 Laptop that I want to use on the network.

What I want to do:
1. I want my linux box to connect to the wifi
2. I want the wireless laptop to connect to the internet thru my linux box.
3. I would like the files on my linux box available for the Laptop (Windows XP Home)to use

My possible solution that needs a direction to start:

Connect my Linux box to the wifi, and attach a wireless router (linksys or whatnot) through the eth0 on the linuxbox, and have the Laptop connect thru it. so it would be like this to connect:

Laptop (wireless) -> wireless router -> wired to the Linux box -> internet via wireless access.

Does this seem possible?
Is there a way to make my linux box's wifi card an accesspoint for the laptop, and still be able to connect to the wireless access?

I am open for suggestions, and I haven't bought a wireless router yet because idk if this setup would work.


Thank you for looking,
Nick

im not an expert but why cant the internet just go straight into the router? you should stil be able ot get to the web based thing to punch in your access code i think

yes, once your linux is online, it can become a router for your house private network. You need to assign you client gw point to your router and set the dns probably.
go to http://yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTu...rkGateway.html


Remember that in your situation you don't need nat cause you apartment won't give you any public ip or do port forwarding for you.

Thank you for your suggestions! I will get right on trying them out! C' ya later,
Nick