My setup is Linux on a computer that's a little too slow for Windows these days. RedHat 7.2. It then has a second network card to distibute bits to the rest of the Windows network. Linux is easy to set up to do something called "IP Masquerading" which is a fancy way of saying it routes your traffic to the proper place transparently.

Then you can get a $100 NetGear wireless hub to handle any laptops you want to move around with.

Linux is also easy to set up as a solid firewall, just make sure you turn off most of the unnecessary services.

Here's the commands in a /bin/sh (shell) script I run when the Linux box is starting:

iptables --flush
iptables --table nat --flush
iptables --delete-chain
iptables --table nat --delete-chain
iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface ppp0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables --append INPUT --in-interface ppp0 -m state --state NEW,INVALID -d ! 224.0.0.1 -j LOG --log-prefix "Rogue Packet from ppp0:"
iptables --append INPUT --in-interface ppp0 -m state --state NEW,INVALID -j DROP
iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface ppp0 -m state --state NEW,INVALID -j DROP
iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface eth0 -j ACCEPT
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

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May not be what you want to do but may help someone else.

The problem with using Windows directly to the public network is that it doesn't easily distribute all traffic to the rest of the private network, plus it's pretty vulnerable unless you add on additional firewall software.

Note: This topic for how to do home networking is just as controversial as what oil to put in your Mercedes.

Ken300D