setting up a laptop to act as a wireless router

[kfgen]

Is it possible to set up a laptop to act as a wireless router?
I have been asked to show students how to make a wireless connection on their laptops. We do not have access to any wired or wireless connections in the class room. So I want to use my laptop running backtrack to act as a wireless router for the lesson. I simply want the students to connect to a wireless connection, maybe browse a webpage (located on the laptop) to confirm the connection is working and then sign out.
A non secure and password protected connection would be great.

Thanks

[imported_hatake_kakashi]

why would you want to use backtrack as an instance for wireless router? I am sure there are at least 10 other distros out there that can be setup as wireless AP/router which may save you a hell lot of time mucking around with a security distro just to make it become wireless router.

[unix_r00ter]

http://www.edaboard.com/ftopic295735.html

[kfgen]

why would you want to use backtrack as an instance for wireless router? I am sure there are at least 10 other distros out there that can be setup as wireless AP/router which may save you a hell lot of time mucking around with a security distro just to make it become wireless router.

I am using backtrack since I need a distro that runs off a cd and it supports my wireless card IPW3495. Backtrack is one of the few distros I have found that will do both. However, if there are other distros I would be happy to try them out.

The other issue is that I don't have an internet connection so in addition to working as a router the laptop also needs to work a web server.

I was thinking that backtrack might have software that would spoof a wireless router using an ordinary laptop.

[megatr0m]

I was always of the impresion that you needed 2 NIC cards in order to act as a router. I do not believe ethernet cards to be of a full duplex configuration they are only set to be half duplex, which would explain the need for 2 NICs (unless they have new NICs out that are full duplex, I don't know). B/c of having multiple user logging into the laptop you would need at least 1 NIC card dedicated to those transmissions. You could set the laptop up in ad-hoc and let ppl connect that way, but I believe the connection may be slow.
good luck
Mega

[Re@lity]

Have you checked out any others yet?

CD Router may be of interest

There are others that I have seen but cannot recall now.
Maybe someone else has a suggestion?

I have also seen similar examples developed specifically as "virtual appliances" - probably on the vmware site....... Maybe another avenue for you to investigate?

[kfgen]

Thanks for link. I will check it out.

However, I may not have phrased my question right, I guess what I am looking for is more of a wireless server then just a router, ie I want to be able to set up my laptop in a room without any network connections and have my students connect to the laptop as if it was a wireless router connecting to the internet. The laptop would also provide a web page for the students to view just to test the connection.

[Barry]

Thanks for link. I will check it out.

However, I may not have phrased my question right, I guess what I am looking for is more of a wireless server then just a router, ie I want to be able to set up my laptop in a room without any network connections and have my students connect to the laptop as if it was a wireless router connecting to the internet. The laptop would also provide a web page for the students to view just to test the connection.

Well if that's all you want, that's fairly easy. You could even do it with windows.

[stechkov]

you can use windows..it is much easier...
just setup an ad-hoc network...and let your students connect...
then thats it...dont how in BT3

im a noob..hihihi..

[hm2075]

check out the softap thread, it's been done succesfully