[HOWTO] Captive portal + FreeRADIUS + local MySQL user friendly single step

deajan

@astatine Your question isn't in the scope of this howto. Please make your own question regarding FreeRADIUS + MySQL setup only.

joel.dq

Hello !

I'm new to pfSense and forum. I was tasked to set up this type of access for an organization and I'm having a small trouble that I probably think it's pretty stupid but can't make it work.

I followed the instructions to the letter and I got the captive portal working as is- No modification of the files except for mysql password etc.

On the LAN PC I get successfully forwarded to the Captive Portal but as soon as I press Connect nothing happens, the form is cleared (as if new connection) and remain there.

I tried to see if the PHP inserted something in the radius DB but I found nothing there and for the life of me I can't find in the logs, or where in the logs, I can tail if there are connectivity errors with mysql + php etc.

I do want t thank you though, the guide is very detailed and I was able to set everything up quick. I just now need to to make that work.

Thanks !

deajan

Hello joel.dq,

Can you activate debug mode in captiveportal-config.php ?

joel.dq

I think I did already. Where should I see that logging?

deajan

There's no logging, it's about getting the error messages onscreen.
What version of the captive portal code are you using ? What user input do you ask for to connect ?

joel.dq

@deajan:

There's no logging, it's about getting the error messages onscreen.
What version of the captive portal code are you using ? What user input do you ask for to connect ?

Hello

I'm using 2.3.2-RELEASE-p1 version.

The inputs I'm asking are

Room # (renamed to Age) . I put it because I can read in the code that the room# is used to create the radius account.
Name
Surname
Mail

Debug is enabled

/usr/local/captiveportal: cat captiveportal-config.php | grep DEBUG
DEFINE("DEBUG", true);
DEFINE("DEBUG", true);

What is happening is that I do get the Captive Portal. I fill the details and click Connect. Nothing happens, no error on the screen and simply clears the form as if first reaching the CP page.

http://i.imgur.com/a/TfTn4

and form gets cleared

http://imgur.com/a/Z8Udw

I normally try to debug myself, I have rudimentary php skills to understand what code does, but I'm lost when JS is involved.

deajan

Hello,

What version of captiveportal do you use ? Latest from git ?

Can you mail me your captiveportal-config.php file at ozy at netpower dot fr ?

Also, assuming you did a Spanish translation, can you give me that so I add it to git ?

joel.dq

@deajan:

Hello,

What version of captiveportal do you use ? Latest from git ?

Can you mail me your captiveportal-config.php file at ozy at netpower dot fr ?

Also, assuming you did a Spanish translation, can you give me that so I add it to git ?

Latest from GIT. Sending and many thanks for your assistance.

I'll send you the spanish translation a bit later. Modified it outside hotel for educative institute.

deajan

Your config file does not come from the latest git, there have been at least 7 commits since your version.
Please UPDATE ALL files before posting about this again.

joel.dq

@deajan:

Your config file does not come from the latest git, there have been at least 7 commits since your version.
Please UPDATE ALL files before posting about this again.

I found the issue.

When I put the terms of use as false, no matter what other options I try with true or false, it won't go on.

$askForTermsOfUse = false;

While the option to put it false is there, apparently it has to always be true to work.

Regards

deajan

Well this was more or less by design, as accepting Terms of use is mandatory.
In the meanwhile, I added askFor[all] parameters, without updating the fact that Terms of Use aren't mandatory anymore.

I've commited a quick and dirty fix you may try.

Regards,
Ozy.

joel.dq

@deajan:

Well this was more or less by design, as accepting Terms of use is mandatory.
In the meanwhile, I added askFor[all] parameters, without updating the fact that Terms of Use aren't mandatory anymore.

I've commited a quick and dirty fix you may try.

Regards,
Ozy.

I can confirm it now works perfect ! Thanks very much Ozy

hsrtreml

Hello Ozy, great work. Thank you.

I have couple of questions about authentification and administration:

How do you disable "non" Hotel guests? You solution is free and open for all "participants".
Is it possible to check the room number, before accepting the registration?
Why does in pfSense in FrreRadius section not listing the registrated user? Only within mySQL-database.
Have you thinking about the process to validate "the login" with eMail confirmation by the user or by the hotel?

Thanks so lot for a discussion.
Best regards
Treml

lienor

Hi Ozy,

Great work on this, thank you! Just some question:

When I reboot my pfsense machine, all credentials are gone. Users will need to re-input and goes back to the landing page. Is that how it should be? Is there anyway the credentials are stored even after every reboot?

Thanks Ozy

deajan

@hsrtreml:

1/ Non hotel guests are excluded via confirmation code (which is basically a stupid code you give the customers at the reception desk)
2/ This is a SELF REGISTERING solution. If you don't need this, you could remove the self registering part and create FreeRADIUS accounts with roomnumber and different passwords per room which you give to the customers
3/ Because pfSense FreeRADIUS UI does not know about the underlying SQL storage, you may open a ticket at redmine.pfsense.org
4/ Well… Confirm the email without having internet ? That's the point of providing wifi, isn't it ?

@lienor:
That's the normal behavior. Unless you know how to play with pfSense's SQLite database where the CP stores identification, you won't be able to change this.

hsrtreml

@deajan:

@hsrtreml:
Thanks for your quick reply.

1/ Non hotel guests are excluded via confirmation code (which is basically a stupid code you give the customers at the reception desk)
Good idea!

2/ This is a SELF REGISTERING solution. If you don't need this, you could remove the self registering part and create FreeRADIUS accounts with roomnumber and different passwords per room which you give to the customers
The point above (1.) will substitute this point.

3/ Because pfSense FreeRADIUS UI does not know about the underlying SQL storage, you may open a ticket at redmine.pfsense.org
ok.

4/ Well… Confirm the email without having internet ? That's the point of providing wifi, isn't it ?
Perhaps an internal network messages to the hotel information system?
btw.
First the customer get internet access after self registration and if the validation is not correct or the time (5 minutes) for confirmation is over, we delete the entry in the SQL-Database?

@lienor:
That's the normal behavior. Unless you know how to play with pfSense's SQLite database where the CP stores identification, you won't be able to change this.

lienor

@deajan:

@hsrtreml:

1/ Non hotel guests are excluded via confirmation code (which is basically a stupid code you give the customers at the reception desk)
2/ This is a SELF REGISTERING solution. If you don't need this, you could remove the self registering part and create FreeRADIUS accounts with roomnumber and different passwords per room which you give to the customers
3/ Because pfSense FreeRADIUS UI does not know about the underlying SQL storage, you may open a ticket at redmine.pfsense.org
4/ Well… Confirm the email without having internet ? That's the point of providing wifi, isn't it ?

@lienor:
That's the normal behavior. Unless you know how to play with pfSense's SQLite database where the CP stores identification, you won't be able to change this.

Thanks Ozy, I have found a way to store the entries by checking Enable Pass-through MAC automatic additions on Captive Portal. Somehow, the entries are still there even after reboot. My only problem is that FreeRADIUS is not starting automatically on restart, I tried all the possible fixes in forums but still failed. Seems like a bug on the new version of PFSense, but not that serious though.

deajan

Be careful with passthrough MAC entries, they are persistent, but will prevent ANY further logins, even if you try to force disconnect them after some period using the CP settings.
As for FreeRADIUS not starting, this is actually a known issue for my setup.

Whenever FreeRADIUS starts before MySQL, it will fail to connect to the database (you'll have logs about this), and will simply fail to start.
A quick workaround is to install Watchdog service and let it check / restart FreeRADIUS.

Btw, if someone knows how to improve the boot order I'd be happy.

hsrtreml

@deajan:

@hsrtreml:

2/ This is a SELF REGISTERING solution. If you don't need this, you could remove the self registering part and create FreeRADIUS accounts with roomnumber and different passwords per room which you give to the customers

@hsrtreml:
One question again: Do you have an easy way to check or validate the room number? Just between a range (100 to 300) or within an array (100, 101, 101, …).

best regards
Treml

deajan

@hrstreml Could be easily implemented on line 114 of main file, using a global variable containing a range or an array in config file.