Easy captive portal generation?
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Hello
We provide free internet service to our hotel (60 rooms) and seminar guests (4 rooms) through a Zyxel 4100 v2 Hotspot solution.
I would like to change our hotspot setup to pfsense because I’ve used it for our internal network (on a seperate internet connection) for several years and it never let me down.
Also the Zyxel solution is becoming too slow for our internet connection (currently 50 mbit) and its bad QoS implementation seems to slow down the little processor to the point where the internet is faster for everybody when QoS is disabled, even tough people are abusing the connection with P2P etc.
However the Zyxel makes the distribution of vouchers extremely easy. Our receptionists simply press one button on the SP-300e thermal printer, the Zyxel generates a new account with 1 day of usage, prints it out and the receptionist hands it to the guest.
So the whole process of giving internet access to a guest is literally one button press.
Would something similar be possible in pfsense, maybe also utilizing the Zyxel SP-300e thermal LAN printer?Another thing is that the Zyxel supports what they call "IP-Plug-and-Play", which essentially means that guests can access the internet on our network no matter what their IP-adresses are set to.
Even if they have disabled DHCP and set a static IP for their laptop’s WLAN adapter, the Zyxel somehow manages to still provide them with a working internet connection. Can this also be done with pfsense?
I would gladly buy a commercial support package if the above functions are possible.
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However the Zyxel makes the distribution of vouchers extremely easy. Our receptionists simply press one button on the SP-300e thermal printer, the Zyxel generates a new account with 1 day of usage, prints it out and the receptionist hands it to the guest.
So the whole process of giving internet access to a guest is literally one button press.
Would something similar be possible in pfsense, maybe also utilizing the Zyxel SP-300e thermal LAN printer?In pfSense captive portal you can generate a CSV file with voucher codes. It is then a fairly straight forward process to use mail merge facilities in word processors such as Open Office, Libre Office or Microsoft Word to print vouchers. A custom word processor form could be created for printing on the thermal printer.
Another thing is that the Zyxel supports what they call "IP-Plug-and-Play", which essentially means that guests can access the internet on our network no matter what their IP-adresses are set to.
Even if they have disabled DHCP and set a static IP for their laptop’s WLAN adapter, the Zyxel somehow manages to still provide them with a working internet connection. Can this also be done with pfsense?
Not that I know of. But now that I think about what would be required there are probably a couple of configuration tricks that could be employed. More than one laptop with the same static IP address would be problematic though.
I would gladly buy a commercial support package if the above functions are possible.
I don't know of any commercial support packages for these particular functions. pfSense commercial support can be purchased - see http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=73. If you want some help on a commercial basis to get what you have described set up you are welcome to send me a PM.
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Another thing is that the Zyxel supports what they call "IP-Plug-and-Play", which essentially means that guests can access the internet on our network no matter what their IP-adresses are set to.
Even if they have disabled DHCP and set a static IP for their laptop’s WLAN adapter, the Zyxel somehow manages to still provide them with a working internet connection. Can this also be done with pfsense?
No, this isn't possible with pfSense. Is this a feature that you find actually used in your installation? (I honestly can't imagine that in this day and age there are laptops with a static IP configured on their WLAN adapter).
Also iirc Nomadix has patented this particular functionality and has (threatened to?) sue those who offer it without using its product.
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No one has really pushed this to be implemented and is tedious.
Its not supported but if you want to have this done you can go through portal.pfsense.org -
Don't forget the voucher won't 'expire' if they are unused, only once they are 'started' does the clock start ticking.
The 2 solutions to this I've used so far are:
(a) Once a week generated some vouchers (1-day, 3-day etc.), printed them on sticky labels / tickets and kept on reception (mail-merge the .csv with your favourite WP or report writer)
(b) Generate a 'huge' batch of 1-day vouchers (monthly?), this was uploaded into the property management system and a 'complementary 24-hours WiFi' (with code) was added to each day of the guest's stay (don't ask me how the PMS integration was done - wasn't me!)There are various scripts to be found hereabouts for generating vouchers via web-pages etc.
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@ermal:
No one has really pushed this to be implemented and is tedious.
Its not supported but if you want to have this done you can go through portal.pfsense.orgCould you give me a rough idea how much it would cost to implement functionality like this? (I have no idea whether it is 500€ or 5000€?)
I could provide a printer like the SP-300e for free, although it would make much more sense to implement this feature using more open hardware.