Hi.  I want to provide guests wireless access much like hotels do.  So
you connect to the wireless network (no security) and upon launching
your browser, you immediately go to a web page where it asks you for a
password/credit card/room number/etc.  Is something available like
that in the SMB market?

Thanks,

S

Just a brief rundown on how a "hotspot" works. Basics, no details here.

You can do this many different ways, but I think this may be the
simplest but not the best of course. If you are using home equipment
and software try this.

Configure DHCP / PROXY server
You need 2 network cards on your server. One from internet to server
NIC1. and the other for the DHCP server to the LAN NIC2. Setup NAT to
share the internet form NIC1 to NIC2. Configure the proxy server for
secured passward authentication. Configure the access points securty
settings to filter all ports except for 80. Setup the wireless config
for open connection, SSID broadcast so remote pc's can connet to the
router. When they get a connection and open IE, they will be greeted
by your proxy server. You have to design the actual page. Most proxy
servers come with the feature.

It starts getting complicated when you want to audit the ip addresses
and retain memberships. That takes more then a standard home
equipment. But in any case this should work in theory, I could be way
off. I havent tried it my self, but I should world like a standard LAN
based extranet that I have setup many times over. The key is in the
proxy server.