Me being the dumb-ass that i am, i reset one of the routers on my LAN last night, now i can't get in remotely. I didn't notice last night because i run local dns for testing.... anyway - i will take advantage of this time to write a little about the new public system.... First, it's not free. the free server will still be available, but the services running on the new server will cost ya a lil' bit.
Basic Control ($7.95 per month $85 for the year)Everything needed to provide a highly configurable, safe, secure, branded hotspot.
RegistrationThe registration system can be configured for anonymous access, require email address, require email validation, and require password (ticket system). Depending on how you configure user registration you will have a number of different screens displayed. For example if you configure your hotspot to allow anonymous access, and do not allow registration, then the "Terms of Use" will be displayed on the login page with a button that says "Agree". On the bottom of the login page will be an Account Login link for admins or users registered via Zone Control.
Email templates are available to customize the emails that are generated by the server. A Welcome Email, Forgot Password, and Email Validation email can all be customized.
A Ticket System is available if you would like to disable self-registration and automatically generate logins to be printed and distributed to visitors. The ticket will have the network name, username, ticket valid date and time, and a free form text description area for a very brief message. This option is activated when you select to not require passwords from your users. In place of a password the visitor must type the random characters displayed in an image file generated by the server.
Client ControlThere are four user classes: Protected, Liberated, Trusted, and Super. Each user class can be assigned a predefined limit for bandwidth, data transfer, and usage time. Data and time limits can be configured on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Protected and/or Liberated classes can be configured to use the content filter. A default class defines what class a user is put into upon registration.
The content filter can be configured via zone control. Set the naughtiness limit, allow/block file extensions, ban/allow specific websites or urls - all from within zone control.
Changes to user settings are made within 60 seconds and do not require the user to logout.
Block mac addresses and usernames.
Define the network availability for each hour of each day. This may sound like more of a chore then a feature, but it's really not that bad. With this option you can keep visitors off your network during busy hours or closed times.
Accounting ConstraintsUnauthenticated access can be configured via zone control. Enter a mac, ip and select a class to have a client bypass authentication.
Configure the server to use or ignore mac addresses and/or usernames when performing accounting. This is required when using shared username or the ticket system.
Temp limits can be used to increase the usage limits of a user for the remainder of the day without changing the user's permanent account settings.
System FeaturesSpot Check RSS feed is available to monitor the usage of your hotspot. Watch active user sessions, and system loads to always be on top of your spot. In the event of a gateway failure you will be notified not only in the RSS message, but the system will also email the details of the crash to your hotspot's support email address. You will be notified again upon recovery.
High Availability will keep your hotspot going and your users happy. Public IP's authentication and control system consists of six servers. A master server, three authentication nodes, and two network database nodes. The master server is used for configuration, updates, and development. The auth nodes are three synchronized slave servers. Updates that are made in the master server are pushed/replicated to the three authentication nodes(aka cerberus). The three nodes combined with the gateway programs provide high availability(failover) for your hotspot users and load balancing for the public ip system. The network database cluster is hosted on two servers and stores user and system data that comes into the public ip system from the gateways. User records, accounting records, and gateway updates are all stored in a data cluster for high availability. If one ndb node goes down the data will still be available from the other node.
An optional public Hotspot Listing is available. Very useful for new people finding your hotspot and for providing details to current users about network availability hours and other info.
Reports, reports, reports... One for usage, one for limit and blocks, and another for the content filter. You can apply date ranges and filter results by username, mac address, or ip address. You can also group the data by username, mac, or ip if you want to see more cumulative data. All reports also generate bar graphs and/or pie charts. You can also view summary reports for the number of logins per day, and time of day usage for the last four weeks so you can get an idea of your busy times.
Select a template style for your hotspot login, registration, etc.. Currently only two styles are available but more will be added as time goes on.
NetworkingPrivate [wired] LAN access is blocked from wifi users (Super user class has access to entire network). You can also allow access to your entire wired network, or define a specific IP address and ports to allow access to a single or multiple computers on your network.
Proxy server configuration can be used to setup your gateway to used a proxy server on your network from within the comfort of zone control.
A shared network printer can be configured via zone control. If you provide an IP address of the printer, along with a small note to users the printer (among other things such as available time, transfer, hours, etc.) will be displayed in the users connection properties window upon login.
Custom Control ($10.95 per month $120 for the year)All the features of Basic Control plus the ability to upload customized Smarty templates and files.
Download our sample templates and edit them to your specifications. Then upload and preview your pages before making them live!
Spot Control ($12.95 per month $140 for the year)All the features of Basic Control plus access to our one-of-a-kind(afaik) support system.
On the 'Spot support is what it's called. What it does is allow you and your visitors to chat. In addition to chat, you will also have the ability to push urls and messages to users. You can have up to five operators, and as many canned messages and urls as you like.
Total Control ($15.95 per month $175 for the year)You guessed it... all the features known to mankind available at your fingertips.
OK, that should be enough for now... there are many other improvements over the existing control server, but i would not consider them to be features in and of themselves.
