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IAS/RADIUS Implementation in a Coffee Shop?
noyler asks: "I've been asked to decide on the best way for metering a 'free' wireless network at a local coffee shop. Here's the scenario: currently, local college students come to the coffee shop, grab a cup of coffee, and then spread out like it's a study hall for 6 to 10 hours at a time and use the free internet. The coffee shop loves this, but it's getting really crowded for the other customers that just come in for some coffee and have nowhere to sit. The management wants to implement a system that, upon buying a drink, grants a time-limited connection for that customer of 3 or 4 hours. If the customer wants more access, another drink will need to be purchased. The store network is a simple cable modem with wireless access point attached right now. After implementation, customers should be prompted for a username/password (which can come from his or her receipt) and then have access to the 'net. One limitation is that the customers should not have to install any third-party software to use it--no window for software corruption liability that way. The customer base is mostly Windows with an ever-growing number of Mac users as well. What are some good ideas for doing this? I've considered RADIUS, or some kind of portal software, but don't see any clear answers. Any suggestions for software to use?? The coffee shop is very low budget, so cheap hardware and free software would be best!"
Simply have the manager remind the students that the free networking is supported by thier continued purchasing. Simply changing the mindset is a whole lot better than trying to screw with a psudeo-login-tracking system. It also allows the managers to target just those that are a problem rather than inconviencing everyone.
This would certainly be a cheap solution:
http://www.hackinthebox.org/article.php?sid=15607
NoCatNet will do what you need it to.
NoCat
I suggest looking at the ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000. It's an access point / receipt printer that is commonly used for selling access. The user gets a receipt, logs into a website, and is granted access for X period of time. You could make it so that when someone buys coffee, they get a receipt good for four hours. Or for $X they can get all day access... It's all up to you. Either way, it's trivial to use. The clerk just presses one of three preconfigured buttons on the receipt printer, the receipt with the access code is created, and everything else happens automagically.
Replace all your electrical outlets with blank faceplates. Once the battery's out, the user's got to go somewhere else. Should be about 3-4 hours or so....
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
This idea is so asinine and restrictive that I can almost guarantee that it will fail miserably as well as probably upset a great deal of the existing customer base. Case in point: I frequent a coffee shop here in Pittsburgh constantly. The Beehive offers free wireless access as well as has around 8-9 computers with all sorts of multiplayer games installed, as well as DVD drives (you can watch movies), and believe it or not, cable access. A number of the computers have tuner cards built in. The money they get from the PCs more than covers the costs of their relatively low upkeep, upgrades, and of course the DSL, which seems to be basic SDSL at maybe.....1.5mps? They are the only coffee shop in the area to offer free internet, and of course people come and congregate based on this fact. The most comparable coffee shop that offers internet would be the Quiet Storm, and it costs roughly $20/month to $10 for a few hours or something (maybe the day). Of course, Starbucks has T-Mobile hotspots that are completely locked down, but I won't get into THAT. Don't charge by the hour. By imposing a fixed cost for a fixed period of time (1 coffee = 3 hours or whatever) people will feel like they are being charged for internet usage. No coffee, no internet. If your crowd is a mostly college crowd, it is understandable that many of them are rather poor and cannot afford $10 in coffee a day. I'm sure that a sizable percentage of your customers comes by just to hang out and sees a coffee or two as the cost of admission. This is the appeal of coffee shops, right? The more friends people have with them, the more paying customers you have. If you have a problem with a large group that does not buy enough to use up your entire space, they need to be kindly, and politely I might add, informed about the simple economics of running a coffee shop. I'm sure the owner pays rent or a mortgage, taxes and obviously, employees. Also, you should look at supplementing the costs of the free net with some rental computers or something that people can use out of convenience, like a CD burner and a printer. Sometimes it is incredibly convenient to be working on a project and have such things available without having to go to kinkos, especially in a college environment. Just think about this differently at least. Anything so restrictive is sure to raise complaints and decrease the overall satisfaction of your customers. $100/month is totally worth it to spend, especially when your customers are buying freaking $2-3 coffees. If you implement a system like this, it is going to take time and money to deploy and test, depending on your setup, which I'm guessing isn't probably all that sophisticated. The problem is really the people that are just using the space. Those are customers you can certainly afford to lose and the best way is ultimately to politely ask them to leave if they are finished with their drinks so that paying customers can use their space. Every bar and coffee shop (the successful ones at least) I've been to will certainly follow some similar policy. I drive a taxi and I clearly wouldn't let someone ride around without giving me some cash. I expect any other sensible businessman to do the same.
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