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Wireless Hotspot Creation?
ezodon asks: "I have been tasked by management to submit a plan on creating a wireless hot-spot in several of our locations. Management would like to be able to charge for the wireless access from our customers. Because of the desire to charge, I have not been able to find any Open Source software, and just a few commercial offerings. I have checked out PublicIP and LessNetworks wireless management software, but neither has a direct billing option. We already have a merchant account and credit card machines at all of our locations. Can anyone in Slashdot land give me some recommendations on how to get this done?"
I'm in college, and recently to prevent anyone from the outside to connecting to the campus' wireless network they decided to use Perfigo's smart enforcer client, which requires one to login... I'm pretty sure the server for that thing can accomodate tracking time and or limiting time based on an account balance... Give it a kick.
---- I am certain of only one thing : I know nothing else.
If you can do without the open source aspect of it, and embrace the world of capitalism, Colubris access controllers, and Airpath backend billing work very well together. The Colurbis even runs Linux.
www.colubris.com
www.airpath.com
If you can't figure out my address, just drop me an e-mail and I will explain.
You're going to charge us to use your system, right?
There's a reason you're finding it hard to find open source solutions. They do exist, though. I suggest offering free lifetime WiFi access to all helpful slashdot posters or hiring a consultant to set this up.
Normally, I'd gladly be more helpful, but in this case I won't. It's not that I'm trying to be a jerk, but rather that I don't feel like helping a jerk (not you necessarily, but your boss/management). Tell your boss you'd like to offer WiFi for free. What will he say? Probably something like, "why the hell would we do that?" So you want free help from me? I guess I must ask myself, "why the hell would I do that?"
NoCatAuth is what you are looking for. Authentication is required before access is granted beyond the local network with all traffic being redirected to a login page that you can specify.
My name is Tim_F and my boss just asked me to implement something that I know nothing about. Can you please tell me how to my job? I'm way too lazy to learn something new.
I think this might be the kind of thing you are looking for: ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000. It's basically an AP and receipt printer, with a few buttons on it. Via a web-based interface, you set the device up, and a clerk presses a button, and out pops a receipt you had to the user. They use the information on the receipt to log into the system, allowing their MAC to access the internet for a specified period of time.
I recommended this to a small shop, and they've been using it since with no problems. It's trivial to get set up, and the clerks selling the access don't need to be technical.
IIRC, you can also allow certain machines access all the time, use it as a normal NAT box for some devices and pay for others, etc.
Hope this helps...
what exactly is your business? How much are you planning to charge. In the long run it may cost you more to keep the pay system running than you actually make in revenue from the system. For example, I'm sure if starbucks could force you to buy something in order to use the wireless internet access they would, but they would probably lose more money in wasting employee time and printing receipts and creating a ticket system etc. than they would actually gain from the few people who just mooch off the system. Yeah, there are going to be those people, but if your business offers a good enough product, most people who want to use the internet will probably end up patrons as well.
I find it ironic that many penny pinchers actually waste more money penny pinching than they would by being a little more free with their money.
Monstar L
More interestingly the about to be inaugurated new beta series, Talisman, which will offer 1-click Hotspot out of the box. Sveasoft has cut a deal with a billing service (and apparently there will be alternatives possible) so with almost no effort one turn on a hotspot and start recouping some expenses (TOS permitting.)
Yes, I said beta. So it won't be an appropraite solution unless you've got some folks willing to become reasonably knowledgable on your staff and the business is open to being 'cutting edge'. On the other hand if this project is like many the firmware may well be out of beta well before the project is ever ready to be widely deployed.
Fair warning: There is a noisy bunch of folks who don't like Sveasoft's beta distribution & support policies. Me, I've no problem with 'em, and apparently the FSF doesn't either, but I figured I'd say it before the barracks-lawyers and tinfoil-hat crowd starts in.
Anyway, that noise aside their firmwares are excellent and do offer fantastic functionality for a US$40-70 series of boxes. I also find it heartening they offer a bounty system for folks developing with their firmware: If there's a feature you specially want put up some cash and see if any of them take the bait & deliver your dream-code Indeed my only complaint is their lack of a wiki for support (also 'due any day now'.)
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.