Authentication server

[canefield]

Dear all,

I'm wondering if pfSense Captive Portal can be used for Wireless authentication/verification portal. So if people trying to accomplish an Internet connection they get redirected to the portal and need to authenticate.

Situation:

• 1x 100/100 Mbps internet connection at the Office (Gateway);
      - One external IP-address.
• 50x houses with wireless connection towards the Office;
• 75x wireless devices using wireless signal towards the Office.

Q1: lends Captive Portal itselfs to do this? Should I use another program/package?
Q2: what kind of system requirements should I take into account? CPU, RAM, etc.? This service must retain stable if all connections are being used (fully loaded)?
Q3: is this authentication process based on MAC-address or U&P? Is it possible to use MAC-addresses?

Thanks in advance,
Canefield

[eri--]

If you consider using pfSense on this i would strongly suggest you buy some support for any issues that might arise during system life cycle.
Not sure why you want CP capabilities here apart login?

[cmb]

That's a good option, a lot of WISPs do exactly that with CP.

Hardware sizing info here. http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=49

Auth is MAC address based once authenticated. Auto-added MAC passthrough is common for such setups so they're always-on once authenticated once.

[dhatz]

@canefield:

Q1: lends Captive Portal itselfs to do this? Should I use another program/package?

CP can be used in such a scenario, however if you expect this to be a permanent setup, you might also want to look into using PPPoE as alternative.

Check the posts by luke240778 to see the kind of issues that you might encounter.