own hot spot

In our office we have a Peer-to-Peer network linking 3 XP desktop machines
and 4 XP laptops using wireless lan

We have a single Linksys WAP54 access point and all works fine.

If a colleagues arrives from another office we have to configure their
laptop each time they visit to see the webpages we have on our intranet

In Hotels, with hot spots, when I start my laptop it seems to pick up an IP
address and also
configures IE with proxy settings and the hotels home page appears as the
default page.

How can I do this so anyone arriving in the offices connects automtically to
our intranet homepage reverting to theirs when they return to their own
base?

Jaez

"jaez" <jaez(nospam)@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:8WzVd.435$(E-Mail Removed)...
> In our office we have a Peer-to-Peer network linking 3 XP desktop machines
> and 4 XP laptops using wireless lan
>
> We have a single Linksys WAP54 access point and all works fine.
>
> If a colleagues arrives from another office we have to configure their
> laptop each time they visit to see the webpages we have on our intranet
>
> In Hotels, with hot spots, when I start my laptop it seems to pick up an
IP
> address and also
> configures IE with proxy settings and the hotels home page appears as the
> default page.
>
> How can I do this so anyone arriving in the offices connects automtically
to
> our intranet homepage reverting to theirs when they return to their own
> base?
>
> Jaez

It looks like you are looking for a "WIFI Gateway".

Check out "ZoneCD". Upon client connects, it will re-direct their first
HTTP attempt to a local intranet page -- from which you can either use as a
"splash screen" or do logins. Even so, it also allows you to do all sorts
of logging.

Great program, I have been using it myself now. It runs completetly off a
"live" CD, so doesn't require to be installed to a HDD. Got an old
computer? Just toss the CD into the drive, and boot up. It'll turn that
old computer into a "WIFI gateway box". All the computer with "ZoneCD"
running will need is just a CD drive (obviously) and two NIC cards. After
configuring, it no longer even needs a monitor, keyboard, mouse.

"ZoneCD"creates an entire new subnet (10.10.x.,y) to be used for clients
connecting to the internet. They pass onto your main 192.168.x.y network
through "ZoneCD", thus allowing this type of control over clients. "ZoneCD"
also does all it's own DHCP.

Very cool program.

Oh, by the way, did I mention it's price? Its completetly free. It will
only cost you a CD-R to burn it onto. Its also free as in open source
(i.e., GNU Licensed). Its Linux based, but you need not know Linux to use
it.

You will have to re-arrange your network somewhat to get it up and going,
but once up it works great.

For a clear picture of the network topolology of how it comes into play,
check out:
http://www.publicip.net/zonecd/how.php

Note: when I first tried out "ZoneCD", I only had one router -- my wireless
gateway router/AP. As you can see from the diagram, another router is
needed. I was able to successfully get it working by using a PC with two
NIC's and using ICS as the "WAN Router". This will work just fine, if you
don't want to get another router. I've since purchased a wired ethernet
router to function as the WAN router as I didn't want to to do the ICS thing
since it requires that PC to always be active for the network to remain
alive. Getting a wired router just reduced some clutter and made everything
much more convienent.

Cheers,
-Eric

"Eric" wrote in message
> It looks like you are looking for a "WIFI Gateway".
>
> Check out "ZoneCD". Upon client connects, it will re-direct their first
> HTTP attempt to a local intranet page -- from which you can either use as
a
> "splash screen" or do logins. Even so, it also allows you to do all sorts
> of logging.
>
> Great program, I have been using it myself now. It runs completetly off a
> "live" CD, so doesn't require to be installed to a HDD. Got an old
> computer? Just toss the CD into the drive, and boot up. It'll turn that
> old computer into a "WIFI gateway box". All the computer with "ZoneCD"
> running will need is just a CD drive (obviously) and two NIC cards. After
> configuring, it no longer even needs a monitor, keyboard, mouse.
>
> "ZoneCD"creates an entire new subnet (10.10.x.,y) to be used for clients
> connecting to the internet. They pass onto your main 192.168.x.y network
> through "ZoneCD", thus allowing this type of control over clients.
"ZoneCD"
> also does all it's own DHCP.
>
> Very cool program.
>
> Oh, by the way, did I mention it's price? Its completetly free. It will
> only cost you a CD-R to burn it onto. Its also free as in open source
> (i.e., GNU Licensed). Its Linux based, but you need not know Linux to use
> it.
>
> You will have to re-arrange your network somewhat to get it up and going,
> but once up it works great.
>
> For a clear picture of the network topolology of how it comes into play,
> check out:
> http://www.publicip.net/zonecd/how.php
>
> Note: when I first tried out "ZoneCD", I only had one router -- my
wireless
> gateway router/AP. As you can see from the diagram, another router is
> needed. I was able to successfully get it working by using a PC with two
> NIC's and using ICS as the "WAN Router". This will work just fine, if you
> don't want to get another router. I've since purchased a wired ethernet
> router to function as the WAN router as I didn't want to to do the ICS
thing
> since it requires that PC to always be active for the network to remain
> alive. Getting a wired router just reduced some clutter and made
everything
> much more convienent.
>
> Cheers,
> -Eric

Or, sorry, the above may be somewhat misleading. The device hooked up to
the PC running "ZoneCD" need not be a wireless router. A wireless AP should
work fine as well. (Haven't tried that yet, but don't see why that wouldn't
also work.)

In my particular case, it made more sense for me to use my older wireless
router versus one of my newer AP's. Using some functionality of the AP's
that wouldn't be possible if they were used with the "ZoneCD" gateway.

Its recommended that the link between the "ZoneCD PC" and the WAN router be
a hard ethernet connection, although using a wireless router for the WAN and
an external stand-alone wireless-ethernet bridge on the "ZoneCD PC" should
work fine too. (Also something that I haven't tried, but may do so in the
future as I have couple DWL-810AP+'s sitting around.)

Cheers,
-Eric

the thingy that hotels use is known as a captive gateway.

i totally endorse eric's view. In fact, i have been using zoneCd on a
wired network too!!!
other similar projects include chillisoft,watchdog but none even comes
close to the zonecd for its ease of use.

"outbackwifi" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> the thingy that hotels use is known as a captive gateway.
>
> i totally endorse eric's view. In fact, i have been using zoneCd on a
> wired network too!!!
> other similar projects include chillisoft,watchdog but none even comes
> close to the zonecd for its ease of use.

ZoneCD is pretty sweet! Works great, easy to use, and the cost simply can't
be beat!

Cheers,
-Eric