[CLUG] Using my laptop to feed an AP

[Peter Flynn]

It's been more than a decade since I had to get this down and dirty with 
networking :-) and as a result I have forgotten most of what I once knew.

Requirement: I have to give a training course in a room with no network 
connection of any type. Students will all have wifi-enabled laptops, but 
few if any will have 3G dongles.

What I have: an Ubuntu 10.4 Dell Latitude D610 laptop with an Ethernet 
port; a HTC Hero which works nicely as a 3G connection when cabled to 
the laptop via USB, but which is not capable of running Froyo; and an 
old WiFlyer pocket wifi AP router (eg 
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/tips/WiFlyer.htm)

I want to set the laptop so that it will forward the IP connection from 
the phone on the USB port, out of the Ethernet port and into the 
WiFlyer, which will broadcast to the users. It will be slow, of course, 
but better than nothing.

The last time I did anything vaguely like this was back in the days of 
pre-wireless dial-up, when I configured an old desktop running Red Hat 4 
to perform demand-dial for the house (wired) LAN :-)

The wireless widget in the toolbar of the Lucid laptop has an entry 
"Create a new wireless network"...I suppose it's too much to hope that 
the laptop itself could act as an AP (without having to go through the 
WiFlyer). I haven't dared try it because I don't trust NetworkManager 
not to crash and burn...unless anyone knows different. In any event, the 
laptop isn't the fastest machine in the universe, and having to show my 
slides and do demos during the course, asking it to act as an AP would 
probably kill it, whereas simply port-forwarding the connection 
shouldn't chew up too many cycles.

///Peter