I currently have a home network that does not use any WLAN. Coming from outside, there's a DSL modem, a bridge/proxy connecting to the DSL modem, and a bunch of workstations accessing the internet through the proxy (or each other in the internal network, say for file servers).
Now, sometimes WLAN would be handy. However, I am very happy with my (non-caching) proxy and instead of putting a WLAN router in front of the proxy, and having the proxy access the internet through the router, I would still like to make every machine use the proxy, including any WLAN client. If I understand the terminology right, what I need is a WLAN access point (requirement #1).
This, of course, would be a security risk if someone broke into the WLAN, because this person would gain access to my internal home network. Therefore, requirement #2 is using a modern type of WLAN encryption like WPA2.
To make this setup easiest for guests, I figure I should set up the WLAN access point such that is acts as a DHCP server, offering IP addresses in, say, the 192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0 range, bridging routing the traffic to the existing home network (192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0), and accessing the proxy at 192.168.1.1:8080. Ideally, a guest would not even have to tell the browser to use a proxy, because the access point acts as an internal router and takes care of forwarding any traffic to the proxy, but this would be optional. Alternativeley, a range of IP addresses on the 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 subnet could be offered dynamically (DHCP), while the static addresses remain as they are, allwoing the access point to act as a mere switch on one subnet.
Does this make sense and is this a reasonable way to extend my existing home network for WLAN?
Just for reference, some links to somewhat related problems I would like to keep; not identical to my problem, but as a good source for further reading:
Linux box acting as wireless access point to share the internet connection
Can I set up an EeePc as a WLAN Access Point?
Setting up Remote access home LAN behind multiple routers?
Is it possible to connect a wireless router to another access point?