If i wasn't busy having my own problems, I could have told you that. The original grey ones lack the ability to act as a hotspot.

I suppose if you attached it to a computer with a wireless card, you could then use the ethernet port to share the connection with the Base Station. That way, it'd technically be a hotspot, but that computer would have to stay on to maintain the link to the rest of the network.

And then, depending on how dubious you are, you could use that hotspot to mess with the people trying to leech your wireless access (like I read about somewhere on the net a while ago, the link to which I can't find right now).

Worst case, it has an original Airport card in it, doesnt it? im sure that'd be worth a few bucks if nobody wants to take it off your hands.