View Full Version : Ready next week
lonnie
01-18-2003, 03:50 PM
We will have support for HotSpotzz in the very next release. You can check them out here http://www.hotspotzz.com/
It is a neat system and you can go about selling systems and leave the really picky details to them. The cool thing is the nationwide aspect. In time that will be more and more important, so this is a good start on that road.
hpool
01-21-2003, 08:23 PM
Why wouldn't you want to create your own system. What exactly do they provide that would make an ISP want to lower it's rates to $19.95 and share revenue with them.
Maybe I am missing something on their main site that I have to e-mail them about?
Bossman
01-21-2003, 09:31 PM
I like the nationwide idea on the surface, but I also think it would be nice to have our own system to do this. This looks to be very similar to the RADIUS authentication many of us have been asking for or quietly hoping for.
At the end of the day I would much rather have a system that can exist alone or just tie into a network like HotSpotzz if I choose. Much like we do for pass-through RADIUS.
go.fast
01-21-2003, 09:39 PM
I'm anxiuos to try some hot spots.
When I turn on my dsl circuits I was thinking of offering a package deal to my subscribers. Landing hotspots all over the place. I don't think I want to use a hotspot solution that forces me to share rebenue with a national.
Hope you have a diferent hotspot solution on the drawing boards.
George
To date, HotSpotzz seems to be the most capable nation-wide HotSpot solution available, and was quite a joy implementing.
We have many more things in the pipeline, including other HotSpot techniques for those who wish to run their own show.
This is going to be a fun year.
lonnie
01-21-2003, 10:51 PM
We are not able to do everything since our resources are limited and we also have an ISP and computer store to run.
This was some really nice code and we had fun porting it, plus we made some much needed cash. It was a good experience. Up to now I had not been a big fan of hotspots, but with this last project almost behind us I can see that hotspots are controllable, and they make a heck of a lot of sense.
One thing we might try and do is to add user IP and MAC to the white list and thus you have your own full time customers able to use the system. Wouldn't it be cool to have this system available for vistors or part time users to be able to just signup for whatever they want in terms of access and you just receive a payment? Or your users can signup before going on a trip and maybe they can use these resources as they travel, just as if they were at home.
I wish to stress we get nothing out of this. It seemed like it would maybe be of use to a few of our people so we asked for permission to leave the code in our distribution. If it brings any business to the guys who paid for it, well there is nothing wrong with that. If nobody wants to use it, then just pretend the menu option is not there.
As we think about this, we recognize the enormity of the accounting function these guys are providing. We certainly have no desire to get into accounting, so without something like this we have nothing.
If somebody has the accounting backend, we will be happy to help with the frontend.
Bossman
01-21-2003, 11:39 PM
Please don't miss interpret the comments posted as anti HotSpotzz.
Most of us have accounting backends and yes, a nation wide solution is great. I don't think anyone expects you to buld an accounting back end for us.
Our system (as I'm sure most others do) will allow users to sign up on the web and get access. All we need is the AP's to force anyone that is not authenticated (via our RADIUS server) to our signup page. They sign up and boom, they have full access. Telus forces people to do this for their DSL connections and register their MAC address before they can have access. If we could implement this in some way at the AP, so it could base access on authentication to our existing RADIUS servers or MAC addresses in our accounting server then the Hotspot wouldn't be an issue. We could put up our own gear wherever we wanted.
Not sure if that made any sense. The progress you guys are making is great!! You can't please all of the people all of the time, and for the most part you keep most of us pretty damn happy.
lonnie
01-22-2003, 12:59 AM
Great, thanks. We have some other things on the prioity front right now.
aerocoach
01-27-2003, 12:48 PM
Hmm.... what about NoCat add-on? That would give some wispers another choice between HotSpotzz and NoCat?
Bossman
01-27-2003, 02:54 PM
do you have any info on nocat?? a web site perhaps.
aerocoach
01-27-2003, 04:11 PM
do you have any info on nocat?? a web site perhaps.
Here's the info with link:
NoCatAuth provides a very full-featured captive portal.
The goal of NoCat is to provide a mechanism for creating multiple classes of service for cooperative wireless networking.
The three major components of the network are:
* Roaming Clients
* Wireless Gateways
* Cooperative Authentication Services
http://nocat.net/
----
Looks like NoCatAuth *already* have added-on RADIUS support. I haven't tried NoCatAuth yet.
Take another look at: wicap - a captive portal
http://www.geekspeed.net/wicap/