I know this is what I want, and need. However... here is my previous post, in the wrong forum I was told, but my problems now are simple... I'm not a programmer and don't know how to get to /tmp., / that' I've read. At this moment I simply want my wireless to work so I can get to my own laptops. If I can simply get back to Linksys's default I'll be happy and work all my other problems when I can. Feed me a simple, step-by-step configuration thing and i'll be happy.

This is surely what I've been looking for to have users to my network (I'm using a WRT54G) allowed after entering a password. But I have a few issues I can't seem to get around.
1) My Vista laptop can't connect to the router via wireless, even with Hotspot disabled. I get a Vista message saying "the connection has been cancelled"... "this might be due to timeout or user action." When viewing the available networks the signal bars come and go, even though the router is only a few feet away.
2) My XP laptop sometimes connects to the router via wireless, then has spotty and slow connections (possibly due to signal strength coming and going?) and sometimes reports a low signal strength.
3) When I first installed Coova I tried setting up a Hotspot for wireless right away, trying as simple TOS, then and as simple Login pages, but those efforts proved unsuccessful. If the laptops DO get connected to the router, sometimes I got the TOS or login screens, sometimes I didn't, but in no case could I get past that and into my network or to the internet.
4) Hotspot with a login screen seems to work on my XP machine w/IE6, connected via Ethernet, except that my username and password ghanges are not accepted. Only the defaults will work, no matter what I put into those fields. And I haven't gotten far enough to tell, but are there problems with IE7 on an XP machine, even connected via Ethernet? My wife's won't connect to our network through the router.
5) I don't see a way to either re-load Coova as a fresh upgrade, thereby removing any incorrect changes I may have made and start again, or re-load the Linksys firmware. The Coova upgrade page wants a .trx file, and the only one I see is the Raw Broadcom trx image, which apparently does not reset changes, although I do need to reset my password. The Linksys firmware is a .bin file and won't reload into my router. (There is apparently something wrong with my reset button on my router. I've never had to use it, and when I press and hold it in nothing seems to happen.)
Yes, I have rebooted the router after every change and powered down/up on many occassions.
I hope there's a simple fix for my problems, since I like the idea of this program. I'm not really a programmer and I was hoping for a "plug and play" application, certainly with configuration changing, but without having to get into coding, which I can easily screw up. Has a "User's Guide" been written yet that I've overlooked?