Mechanics behind a sign on screens(for people to access a wireless network)

[rudy45]

When I'm at a hotel that offers wireless access, I often must sign in and provide some sort of access code. It appears, furthermore, that this sign on process is required for ANY internet access at all, not just web access. For example, in the hotel example, if I just start my computer, and try to send or receive Outlook Express e-mail, it will fail. Then I realize that I must start my web browser and take care of signing on. After that, both web access and e-mail access is fine.

How is this signon process handled? It looks like the hotel is intercepting my "normal" request for home page, and sending out its own page. Is it handled by the wireless router? Does the signon page, and the logic behind it, come from the router itself? Or, is the router smart enough to send my computer to a hotel web page, located on the ISP server of the hotel?

[ShadowAce]

[battlecry]

Somebody who knows for sure will chime in shortly, but I suspect you will not be assigned a good ip address unless you sign in. Without one, you get no traffic.

[KoRn]

They probably use some sort of Proxy server that you must go through for network access, and likely have a firewall set to deny any packets that originate from anywhere other than that proxy server.

I’m a little in the dark on the way all of that works as well. I’m interested in learning more, because where I work we are wanting to setup public wireless access and want to use a terms of use page that loads every time someone opens a browser on that network where the user will have to agree to our terms before being allowed access. I’ve seen it done at other sites so I know it can be done.

If any FReepers out there could enlighten me, I’d be most appreciative.

[antiRepublicrat]

Any wireless router can do it with the right firmware, such as DD-WRT. The router hijacks http requests of unauthenticated users and allows nothing else. Upon opening a web browser, they’re redirected to a web page — one on your own server, or one at a hot spot service. After authentication the redirect goes away and any other Internet traffic is opened to the user (depending on what you allow).

If you have an old computer and a wireless access point, ZoneCD is a Linux distro built just for this, including optional payment. It’s a live CD, no install necessary.

[papasmurf]

Amazing that you mention DD-WRT. I’ve been looking at that lately, specifically v24, wanting to flash it on an old linksys.

Can you tell me your experiences with using it?

[antiRepublicrat]

Can you tell me your experiences with using it?

The interface is a lot more complicated than the standard firmware, allowing you to screw things up easily if you don't know what you're doing, but it's a lot more powerful and flexible. Support and tutorials are available on the site for pretty much any setup. It's pretty solid and reliable.

[papasmurf]

Yeah, I heard that. They do have a very nice Wiki with what looks like a very complete install how to.

Are you using it as an Enterprise/Radius AP or? What walls have you hit or recurring issues have you had? Which router do you use it with?

Thanks.

[antiRepublicrat]

Are you using it as an Enterprise/Radius AP or? What walls have you hit or recurring issues have you had? Which router do you use it with?

I used it on an old first-year Linksys WRT-54G as my home wireless router because the standard firmware sucked, especially if I had any high network load like BitTorrent, multiple high-bandwidth downloads/streaming, or VPN. DD-WRT made things a lot better. The QoS features were pretty good, with very fine-grained tailoring. But the limited resources of the 54G meant I went from unusable to just barely usable under high loads. The auto-reboot feature of DD-WRT helped a bit, with everything clearing out at 3 in the morning.

I eventually dumped the router for a new one with higher-powered hardware, a Linksys 330N. I can't use DD-WRT on it, but that's a result of the dedicated multithreaded streaming QoS processor in it, which is why I bought it.

After that I played with using the 54G with DD-WRT as a wireless bridge for my XBox 360 instead of buying Microsoft's adapter, but I decided not to given the extra shelf space, power consumption and possible increased latency over Microsoft's USB wireless adapter.

[papasmurf]

Thanks.