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I believe that Sveasoft (or somebody else) has a firmware for the WRT54G which will act like a "coffeeshop" type distro. Generate passwords, etc. Keep looking at the firmware.

Post Google:

http://www.portless.net/menu/ewrt/

and look into software called "nocatauth", which the above has put on a WRT54G

Luck

Not all libraries censor information. Some, like in my town of Santa Cruz, CA, have linux kiosk stations out in the open. This has the effect of preventing surfers from viewing porn because people can see the screens easily. Sometimes it happens though, and they have to ask them to stop. That's all.

Just a little while ago they put in some Linksys WRT54G access points and people come in with laptops. The WRT54G has custom firmware http://www.portless.net/menu/ewrt/ that gives a spash page with the TOS.

There are two linux-distros for the Linksys WRT54G that are meant to help with setting up hotspots:

EWRT Linux http://www.portless.net/menu/ewrt/ and the hotspot-zone project http://sourceforge.net/projects/hotspot-zone/. Both use nocat as the captive portal, the later offers radius authentication patches for nocat.

for roughly $65, you can buy a linksys wrt-54g which runs linux out of the box. add to this some free third-party replacement firmware and you get full control over the unit and loads of features - VPN, packet shaping, advanced packet filtering, captive portals, and all sorts of other stuff. the unit is very flexible, reliable, cheap, and most of all it is supremely hackable - especially if you know your way around linux.

if you do go down this route be sure to avoid sveasoft's firmware, for reasons illustrated here. basically, the guy writing it is a total cockbite. last time i questioned his (ab)use of the GPL here on slashdot he banned me from his forums, so if you do intend to send him $20 you'd better be nice.

Consumer grade broadband routers are notorious for causing problems, and are almost always badly underpowered. Using a PC based router to handle nat generally works much better, provided you have the know-how to set it up.

A few months ago I replaced an aging P133, an ancient 3com 12 port 10 megabit switch (with 2 100 megabit uplink ports, woo hoo!), and an 802.11b access point with a Linksys WRT54G.

I replaced the firmware with this. I've been very happy with it so far. I think the 200 mhz mips processor is probably a decent replacement for the P133. It takes up much less space, makes much less noise, and it's in much better condition that the old hardware it replaced. I can still ssh into it, and according to /proc/version it is running a 2.4.20 kernel.

I think it was approximately 70 dollars well spent.

No such forced terms of service exist for open WAPs that I know of unfortunately

There are a few: anyone thinking of running an open Access Point should strongly consider the use of something like the NoCatSplash firmware (if you've got a WRT54G). This'll turn your AP into a "NoCat open portal", which means that users will be presented with a "splash page" of your choosing, and must click a button before they can access the network from your AP: instant ToS agreement/disclaimer. Also, you'll need to make sure all logging is turned off and there's no way of recording or knowing who is doing what with the connection; this'll then protect you - at least to some extent - though, like you say, you'll probably still be breaking your own ISP's ToS, and maybe other laws (depending on where you live).

There are plenty of other firmware hacks for the WRT54G (and similar) around, too, check out LinksysInfo.org for more details. There are a good few that include similar features to NoCatSplash, plus enhancements such as the "ping" hack (to boost the AP's signal strength), in an easier-to-use firmware: for example EWRT. Oh, and Seattle Wireless is another good source of information.

Also available is EWRT a distro aimed at hotspots and wireless coops.

It includes NoCat which should be working soon. :)

I think it's clear now that Jimmy-the_great_businessman made a big mistake while dreaming about his great and rich future. It's clear now the the 'company' he have found will finish it's life soon. Let's speed up the process a bit with common efforts.

Here are all the new and old projects and places where you can get an alternative code:

New Broadcom
Firmware forked from Sveasoft Alchemy code
http://sourceforge.net/projects/newbroadcom/

Rustam's Download Mirror
Download both binaries and sources of Alchemy
http://freewrt.da.ru/

Annejuul's Download Mirror
Download Alchemy binaries
http://www.30mb.com/x/annejuul/

EWRT
Linux for WRT54G hotspots
http://www.portless.net/ewrt/

OpenWrt
OpenWrt - Wireless Freedom
http://openwrt.ksilebo.net/

Wifi-Box
Wifi-Box Firmware for WRT54G
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wifi-box/

FreeWRT Mailing List
Stay up to date about Linksys FW projects
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freewrt/

suckers must die

I get the same thing. I don't see the vulnerability in my WRT54g. Maybe my firmware isn't current enough, but I just bought it a couple of months ago. Maybe my firmware is too current. Who knows. Either way, I finally changed my admin password. I'll be installing EWRT soon anyhow. Then I'll be able to forget about this Linksys trash.

I just bought one 2 days ago and set it up, I think it did have security on by default- but the admin passwd is just admin by default. Gotta be simple on some level for end-users I suppose.

batbox, EWRT or OpenWRT will let you really have fun with this hardware.

Ahh... the wonders of OSS and GPL. :-)

convert your linksys into such a beast. http://www.portless.net/ewrt

"What you need is a router that provides bandwidth priority to some connections and not others (I forget the term), and also that partitions the public portion of your personal network off from the private portion. And instead of claiming ignorance, claim you are a nice guy who just wants to help out your neighbors, houseguests or restaurant patrons."