I live next to a public library and want to know if i could use their Ap for my home network. I was wondering if putting Linux on my old laptop and using that as a kinda "modem" then hooking it up to my router and having my network be normal after that. I figure i could use the built in wireless adapter to get the signal and use the Ethernet adapter to give it to my router.

I just dont know if this would even work or what it would be called. If i get the vocabulary going i can look up how to make everything work on google.

the dsl guys wont be able to come fix me up for a while apparently so i figured this would make a good stopgap.

thank you all

Notwithstanding any legal/ethical issues, this should be quite do-able; no external router required. If you get the wireless side and the ethernet side working independently, then pretty much any firewall-building tool should be able to turn your Linux box into a router. As is my custom, I will put in my plug for HomeLANSecurity to do the job.
--- rod.

yes after some more looking yesterday i figured that one of the firewall router distros would be ideal. ty for the responce ill totaly look into homelansecurity. i didnt even think about legality because it is a free hotspot. maybe ill keep ot down to surfing with my laptop untill good ole at&t get here