sundance-communications.com/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking WiFi hotspot

Since I'm not a geek I'm not sure how to answer this question that comes up every so often. Most likely a restaurant wants their customers to have wireless access to the internet. Would it be as simple as a separate broadband account with the modem connected directly to an unencripted access point or points depending on the coverage?

-Hal

It could be. You may want to look at the Talisman firmware, which is a replacement for many of the popular routers out there. It allows you to create multiple SSID's with different security settings for each, and you can keep them segregated.

But if they want simple, you just need some off the shelf AP's, set the SSID, change the management password, and its off to the races.

What type of connection do they have now?

Normally cable or DSL. I was thinking of a separate account just for that to keep it off their network if they have one.

-Hal

That would certainly be easiest, Hal. A typical pub or restaurant could probably work from a retail-grade wireless router and maybe an additional wireless access point. Make sure that you run CAT5e between them.

A separate account would obviously cost the establishment more money, but if that's not an issue then there's no reason why that can't be done.

There are certainly ways to partition a single account so that the business has its own privacy/security through general LAN settings.

Some Router's like the sonicwall have the ability to create user accounts. They are very easy to setup as far as seperating private from public. They also have the ability to limit the time a customer is "online".

With things like a custom IE window when a user logs on. It looks pretty snappy. I do however like the simple way when possible (seperate broadband) even if it will be an extra cost to the customer.

:no i didnt pass the "how much of a geek are you test":

Yeah, I was wondering if there was a router made for this if I wanted to get a little "fancier". I looked at Talisman as Jim suggested but it looks to be rather problematic if you look at some of the other Google results. Their site really gives no information unless you fork over twenty five bucks for a year's subscription.

-Hal

Hal -

Verizon's DSL comes with a wireless router. Assuming they have DSL for themselves, let them order a second DSL circuit on one of their other lines, and you'll get a separate "wireless access point" that, by default comes wide open to the public. Let them shut off the wireless option on their router (run wired Cat 5E for their connections) and they'll be good to go.

Verizon's Westell router cover about 150' (or more). Mount the router in a central point and you're in business.

Free wireless seems to be a real draw.


Sam

There are specialized access points for public services, which is probably not exactly what you're looking for.

A little-known secret of Optimum Online, and I suspect many cable modems: If you put a hub between the modem and two or more standard cable/dsl firewalls, each firewall will receive a unique IP address, and will both work. It only works with a good-old-fashioned hub, not a switch.

i have public access points in my place of work, I use IPCOP for my router, you can add an orange card for all wireless traffic, it shares the main internet connection with no access to the internal network, works great

I have installed a product from NOMADIX that allows you to connect via wireless or wired, and ANY network settings tht the user has will work. You can have any static IP or gateway or DNS entered and it will work around it and give the user access. No matter what address the user trys to access the fist is the "ad or disclaimer" page that we set up. Netsys makes one too that I have used.