My laptop is often on some network connection that I would like to share with friends. For example, when I am using my cell phone as a modem. What I would like, is to turn it into a secure wireless network, like a network that a "Linksys wifi" router would provide, so that my friends would gain access to the network. I would obviously run dhcpd and assign some private addresses to them and masquerade. Is there some system or thing that would do it? thanks i

On 2007-12-12, Larry Bristol <larry@doubleluck.com> wrote: > Ignoramus7955 wrote: > >> My laptop is often on some network connection that I would like to >> share with friends. For example, when I am using my cell phone as a >> modem. >> >> What I would like, is to turn it into a secure wireless network, like >> a network that a "Linksys wifi" router would provide, so that my >> friends would gain access to the network. I would obviously run dhcpd >> and assign some private addresses to them and masquerade. >> >> Is there some system or thing that would do it? >> thanks > > Well, you need a couple of things I can think of. First, your laptop would > have to act as a bridge/router between the internet connection you have > with your cell phone and the local network to be accessed by your > friends. Correct. > AFAIK, that can all be done with software on your laptop, like you are > thinking. To this point, I think the fact that it is to be a wireless > network is actually irrelevant. Well, yes. What I want is other people to connect to my laptop via wifi and obtain internet access. I would assign them internal addresses and masquerade their IPs. > Second, you would need to provide a wireless access point for your friends > to connect with. I think some wireless nics can do that, but it sounds a > little tricky to me, especially if you also want to use it as a regular > wireless nic at other times. I do want it to act as a regular NIC, for sure. > Assuming your laptop has a wired ethernet port (in addition to > whatever it takes to connect your modem), the obvious solution would > be to get an actual wireless access point, such as a NetGear WPN802 > (I can vouch for this particular unit) or something equivalent. You know, that's a good, practical idea, thanks i

Ignoramus7955 <ignoramus7955@NOSPAM.7955.invalid> writes: >My laptop is often on some network connection that I would like to >share with friends. For example, when I am using my cell phone as a >modem. >What I would like, is to turn it into a secure wireless network, like >a network that a "Linksys wifi" router would provide, so that my >friends would gain access to the network. I would obviously run dhcpd >and assign some private addresses to them and masquerade. >Is there some system or thing that would do it? I believe that most Linux drivers do not support the Master option for the wireless card, which would be needed to make the wireless card into an Access Point. >thanks >i

On 2007-12-12, Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote: > Ignoramus7955 <ignoramus7955@NOSPAM.7955.invalid> writes: > >>My laptop is often on some network connection that I would like to >>share with friends. For example, when I am using my cell phone as a >>modem. > >>What I would like, is to turn it into a secure wireless network, like >>a network that a "Linksys wifi" router would provide, so that my >>friends would gain access to the network. I would obviously run dhcpd >>and assign some private addresses to them and masquerade. > >>Is there some system or thing that would do it? > > I believe that most Linux drivers do not support the Master option for the > wireless card, which would be needed to make the wireless card into an > Access Point. What about Atheros amd Wlan0? I tried setting mastert mode and it did say not supported. i

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.misc.] Lew Pitcher staggered into the Black Sun and said: > Ignoramus7955 wrote: >> My laptop is often on some network connection that I would like to >> share with friends. What I would like is to turn [the laptop] into a >> secure wireless network, like a network that a "Linksys wifi" router >> would provide. Is there some system or thing that would do it? > You are looking for the "host_ap" tools. A quick glance at the Gentoo ebuilds says that that package is only for users of Prism2 cards. hostapd looks like it's a more general package and is on http://hostap.epitest.fi as well as in your distro. Right now, I don't have time to test it and make sure. I know that the stock ipw2200 kernel module won't let you do the "iwconfig eth1 mode master" thing you'd really need to turn an 802.11 card into a real AP. (Ad-hoc mode works, though.) I have little experience in this as I've only got one fully tweakable 802.11 device. > You might want to do a quick Google search on 'Linux "access point"'; > you'll find lots of help on the web, including this howto -> > http://oob.freeshell.org/nzwireless/LWAP-HOWTO.html Parts of that HOWTO are probably out of date and prism2 specific. -- That which does not kill us makes us stranger. --Trevor Goodchild, Aeon Flux Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see