Here's a decent article on setting up an access point or router.
Setting Up Wireless Access Points
ummies
Your email not going out could be the ISP your connected to not letting mail out through any servers except their own. Some ISP's do this to control spam.
For example if you use time-warner at home your outgoing server settings might be smtp.yourstate.rr.com
And your connecting to comcast ISP at your current location, you may have to change the outgoing server setting to smtp.comcast.net
Hope that is helpful.