I administer a small LAN for my company and right now we have a nice little wireless setup that clients and co-workers can access using a simple WEP key. This is nice and all, but I'm not as concerned about the depth of security here as much as usability. I would prefer to configure this access point to use a Linux firewall set up as a gateway to the LAN.

The goal is to no longer require users to configure their wireless connection to match my security needs, but instead to redirect their web traffic to a web page that would allow them to authenticate through a RADIUS server. Sort of like what you'd run into if you tried to connect to a hotspot in a coffee shop, except I don't want to charge people for the service. Just make them authenticate.

Seems like it ought to be a somewhat straightforward configuration to build, but before I dig into my limited knowledge of PHP and try to build it, I thought I'd post here to see if anyone has seen (or uses) an open source version of this kind of mechansim out there that I could use.

Would also be interested to know the details of such a setup in case I find myself in a hotel room with one of these authenticated wireless APs that might be fun to poke at . . .