Possible? PC as gateway to Internet for USB access point/wifi card

In theory this is a great way to get your ass fired. They have the network set up that way for a reason. You're talking about completely circumventing that. Good luck with your job search.

Bill, please take the time to ask the facts about a situation before you start throwing unwarranted insults like that.

By using using the PC as a gateway, this would be in full compliance with their guidelines of enabling internet access to visitor PC's with the existing network protections (password-restricted login, antivirus/ antispyware, firewall, etc.) at no incremental cost or effort on their part, with their knowledge and approval.

If you have any c> =A0> Direct connections to the Internet are prohibited. =A0 But

Leave out the facts in the first place and speculation is all you encourage.

And you have ASKED THEM THIS? Or you're just thinking "they'd be ok with it"?

Having designed, set up and run quite a lot of networks I'd be hard pressed to even begin to trust letting users set up what you're suggesting. What would be the point of having the existing login requirements only to allow something like what you're suggesting?

And I made a constructive one, ASK before doing something like this. If you have, and they've agreed but haven't offered an approved solution then one could question whether they know what they're doing.

As for insults, puh-leeze, get a thicker skin. If you think that's being insulting then you're in for trouble trying to ask questions online.

Would a WiFi hotspot serve your purpose for a login?

Login PC ? via what protocol ? via Remote Desktop ? via http ? via telnet ? via ssh ?

Login is a client/server process. And you think you can login a PC without installing software ? And you are talking a vanilla PC with Windoz? Incredible!!!

Maybe you can run a proxy server on your PC. And your guests can setup their browsers to point to your PC as the proxy server. But again you need to install a proxy server on your PC.

Then you are the expert. You already have had a solution yourself.

Thanks for the suggestions, Harry331.

Yes, a wifi hotspot independent of the existing network is the primary approach being explored, but that will take over a year to get negotiated, budgeted, authorized, and scheduled, and the cost will be driven up 100-fold.

Simple WinXP system login, but the default ID and a password are shared by dozens of users on any of the few shared PCs in a semi- public room. The desired level of network protection is configured into those PCs and in the network, so having password-protected wifi through one of those PC's to the Internet would maintain that.

Not exactly. The PC would be manually logged into first in order to run the get the PC's connectivity started and to run a tiny program that does the bridging during a work session. (E.g., something simple like the tiny script or java program I saw demonstrated over a decade ago on a PC with a pair of wired connections.)

Yes, something like that. In today's Windows, I think I'm seeing that the simplest software approach would normally be ICS or Windows bridging, but those require "installation" (or configuration + reboot) rather than just running software.

Alas, it wasn't me, but an engineer in my team. The demo project that used that was shelved within 2 years and everyone involved (including me) left that company sooner or later, so there's no going back to learn out how it was done. (The last I heard of the engineer, he had moved back to India and changed careers.)

Thanks,

Craig

A guest has his/her laptop connected to the LAN via wirless but at that time unable to connect to the internet.

Then the guest sits in front of your PC, and do a console login. How does this console PC login enabling your guest's laptop to be able to connect to the internet? Sorry, I still don't see how that is possible.

I did that once on a Cisco switch. Locked my MAC out from accessing the network until the Cisco admin reset something.