[TriLUG] Hotel style wireless

[Steve Hoffman]

Right now, my company has two wireless access points (a WAP11 and a
WRT54G), one at each end of the buildling.  We're currently doing MAC
filtering only, since the only ones who use the wireless are company
guests.  Every time one shows up they have to come to me to give me
their MAC so I can punch it in to both AP's and if I'm not here then
they have to plug into the wall (gasp).  So I was recently on a trip
and the hotel I stayed at had free wireless.  In order to use it, I
connected to the AP, surfed to ANY webpage and was taken to their
"login" page that asked for my room number and the code printed on my
key.  As soon as I did that I was able to surf the internet with no
problems for the duration of my stay.

I'd like to set something similar up, perhaps only slightly less
sophisticated, but when someone comes here they can only get to the
login webpage until they provide valid credentials and then are able
to surf the net freely.  My problem is I don't know where to start
looking.  The network is about 75% linux so I'd prefer a linux based
solution, but if there's a better way to do it on <the OS that shall
remain nameless> then please pass it along also.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Steve