How To Setup An Endian Hotspot With SmartConnect and Bandwidth Limitation – Endian

Version 5.0

Applies to Platform: UTM 5.0

Background

This document will walk you through setting up the Endian hotspot to run with SmartConnect authentication and ticket with bandwidth limitation, so users can login by creating their own account by filling a form and obtaining a bandwidth-limited access to Internet. This particular example will show the process by setting Endian Hotspot to let the user create his own account by using SmartConnect feature and obtaining a 2-hour free ticket to navigate with a bandwidth limit of 32KB/s.

Create the tickets

The first thing you need to do is to create the ticket that will be assigned to the user who will register his own account by using SmartConnect.

From the hotspot administration interface, select Tickets > Rates > Add Rate and you will be presented with a ticket creation form, then proceed with the next steps to correctly fill it:

Provide a ticket name (generic) and a ticket code
Select both SmartConnect and Bandwidth limiting checkboxes
Write 32 as value for both Download and Upload values.
Select Pre-Paid as the payment method
Select Time-Based as Measuring Mode
Write 2.00 as value and select hour(s) from the list.
Select Always as Validity.
Leave both Price for 1 hour and Price for Ticket set to 0.00 to create a free ticket.

Click Save when you finished.

As we will use E-mail verification to confirm the registration, we will need to create an additional ticket that will be used by Endian hotspot to give temporary Internet access to the user, in order for him to be able to open their own mailbox and click on verification link sent on the e-mail address user during the registration.

To create it, select Tickets > Rates > Add Rate and do the following:

Provide a ticket name (generic) and a ticket code.
Select Pre-Paid as the payment method.
Select Time-Based as Measuring Mode.
Write 15.00 as value and select minute(s) from the list.
Select From ticket creation as Validity.
Write 1 as value for Ticket valid for and select hours.
Leave both Price for 1 hour and Price for Ticket set to 0.00 to create a free ticket.

Click on Save when you finished.

Once saved, the ticket list should contains at least the following:

Configure Hotspot Settings

Next, we'll set the basic parameters for the hotspot. Select Settings from the hotspot administration interface.

The main configuration options to be concerned with on this page are:

Homepage (URL) that the user will get sent to after successfully logging in
Portal Background homepage (URL) that will be displayed in the background of the hotspot portal (prior to logging in). This must be a valid and accessible webpage (URL).
Logout user on Idle-Timeout which determines after how long an idle hotspot users get automatically logged out (select unlimited if you want to disable this feature).

See the Endian manual for more specific information on these fields: http://docs.endian.com/5.0/utm//hotspot/admin/settings.html

SmartConnect Configuration

In order to configure SmartConnect, please refer to guide SmartConnect Auto-Registration Through Email.

Customize the Hotspot

The last step is to customize the text displayed in the various hotspot portal screens. using the built-in (HTML) WYSIWIG editor found under Settings > Language. The first is the "Welcome" page which by default contains a disclaimer but you can modify this to introduce your company or service, perform advertising, or whatever else you prefer.

Hotspot Client View and User Registration Procedure Example

Now your hotspot users should get automatically redirected to the captive portal page. From here, they can create their account to access the Internet through the hotspot by clicking on Register new account.

The user will fill the form with at least the required information and will enter a valid e-mail address, will accept the terms of service and will click on Register.

The ticket created before will be available to be selected, then click on Continue.

A message of successful transaction (even if the ticket is free) will appear, and temporary Internet access of 5 minutes is given to the user in order to login into his mailbox and confirm the e-mail address.

This is the confirmation e-mail sent to the user with the verification code to click in order to confirm the ticket purchase.

The user will be redirected to Endian Hotspot again and the e-mail address will be confirmed. The temporary Internet access will be disabled and the user will need click on Home to login with the created credentials and use the purchased ticket.

The user will type the registered credentials and will click on Login button.

A window of successful connection to Internet will appear, with additional details about the current session, included session traffic and time counters. The user will click on Start browsing to access the page set into Main setting of the hotspot. This windows needs to be left opened for the whole navigation session.