New Public Hotspot Setup

My business is in a shopping mall next to a coffee shop that offers paid
T-Mobile wireless access. I'd like to take advantage of all the traffic by
offering cheaper wireless access.

My question is, what's the easiest way to get set up with an entry page and
credit card billing? I've been considering dns redirector but it looks like
significant work to set it up. Is there a solution that does NOT require an
in-house server?

Thanks for any suggestions.

> My question is, what's the easiest way to get set up with an entry page and
> credit card billing? I've been considering dns redirector but it looks like
> significant work to set it up. Is there a solution that does NOT require an
> in-house server?

There are a number of Hotspot in a box type products. Dlink do one for
example, plenty of others.

I bought one a few years ago with an integrated printer (till roll
style). You just pressed a button and it generated and printed the logon
credentials.

David.

I would strongly suggest http://www.dnsredirector.com - this way you
can use any Windows PC and any wireless access point/router hardware.

Consider providing access entirely for free, use the splash page to
refer people to your business, perhaps provide a coupon - your revenue
should continue to be based on the primary product/service you sell,
use the free wifi to supplement that rather than trying to sell wifi
access.

JPElectron wrote:
> I would strongly suggest http://www.dnsredirector.com - this way you
> can use any Windows PC and any wireless access point/router hardware.
>
> Consider providing access entirely for free, use the splash page to
> refer people to your business, perhaps provide a coupon - your revenue
> should continue to be based on the primary product/service you sell,
> use the free wifi to supplement that rather than trying to sell wifi
> access.
>

Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious - why do you advocate providing
free access? No other HotSpot in my area is free.

Johann wrote:
> JPElectron wrote:
>> I would strongly suggest http://www.dnsredirector.com - this way you
>> can use any Windows PC and any wireless access point/router hardware.
>>
>> Consider providing access entirely for free, use the splash page to
>> refer people to your business, perhaps provide a coupon - your
>> revenue should continue to be based on the primary product/service
>> you sell, use the free wifi to supplement that rather than trying to
>> sell wifi access.
>>
>
> Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious - why do you advocate
> providing free access? No other HotSpot in my area is free.

Yea... people could sit at the coffee shop and use your free service.

Hmmm ... interesting idea. I take all the revenue away from the other
HotSpot providers and don't get any myself either, in return for making
people aware of my business that's next door to the coffee shop where
they're drinking coffee.

Now why didn't I think of that???



"DanR" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:mYoig.113672$(E-Mail Removed) .com...
> Johann wrote:
>> JPElectron wrote:
>>> I would strongly suggest http://www.dnsredirector.com - this way you
>>> can use any Windows PC and any wireless access point/router hardware.
>>>
>>> Consider providing access entirely for free, use the splash page to
>>> refer people to your business, perhaps provide a coupon - your
>>> revenue should continue to be based on the primary product/service
>>> you sell, use the free wifi to supplement that rather than trying to
>>> sell wifi access.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious - why do you advocate
>> providing free access? No other HotSpot in my area is free.
>
> Yea... people could sit at the coffee shop and use your free service.
>
>

Johann <gmwemail-(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious - why do you advocate providing
>free access? No other HotSpot in my area is free.

Well, if you're looking for sources of revenue, might as well make
lemonade out of lemons. The lemons are the non-revenue generating
customers that monopolize a table with their laptops, sipping on cup
one coffee for many hours. If you find yourself short on available
tables for paying customers, a quick look at what the laptop users are
buying should offer a clue.

However, all is not lost. In some countries (France) customers rent
tables in coffee shops and use them for an office. I've considered
renting one for my own business as I could easily deal with spyware
removal and Windoze updates any place I have a high speed connection.
I rent a table in your establishment, put up a small sign offering my
services, and the coffee shop gets some more revenue. I'll leave the
rate structure to your imagination.

Even if you don't decide to rent tables, it would be interesting to
add it to the rate card. That should give the table hogs a clue as to
what's expected. You might also want to add "wireless tech support"
to the menu as answering question about the wireless might be a
problem.

Now, if you want publicity, consider charging for the use of the
wireless by the pound. Put a weight scale at the counter, weigh the
PDA or laptop, and charge proportionally on the logic that heavy
weight laptops occupy more table space and should therefore pay more.
That should get your coffee shop mentioned in the local newspapers
just prior to you discontinuing the practice.

As for free wireless, I'm all in favor of having someone else pay for
my connectivity. It doesn't really matter whom as long as it's not
me.

Another joy of free and open wireless is the neighbors and
freeloaders. I was at a local coffee and munchie place last night and
noticed 3 cars across the street, with drivers in the front seat,
banging on their laptops. Obviously, they didn't buy anything. They
just wanted to use the free wireless. Same with the nearby neighbors.
One of the hot spots I help maintain has a little monitor routine I
scribbled. It displays the connection count. The owner then counts
physical laptops in the coffee shop. Invariably, there are more
connections than visible customers with laptops, usually in the
parking lot. Perhaps this might be a clue as to why few businesses
offer free wireless.

Oh, whatever you do, make sure you have "client isolation" or some
similar feature enabled. (Linksys calls it "AP isolation"). This
will prevent wireless clients from seeing each other so that you don't
have someone walk in with a laptop full of viruses and attack everyone
elses laptop in the shop.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Lots of good food for thought there. What concerns me too, is that
freebie users are more likely than others to download porn or do illegal
things that can't be traced to them but you betcha can be traced to my IP.



Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> Johann <gmwemail-(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:
>
>> Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious - why do you advocate providing
>> free access? No other HotSpot in my area is free.
>
> Well, if you're looking for sources of revenue, might as well make
> lemonade out of lemons. The lemons are the non-revenue generating
> customers that monopolize a table with their laptops, sipping on cup
> one coffee for many hours. If you find yourself short on available
> tables for paying customers, a quick look at what the laptop users are
> buying should offer a clue.
>
> However, all is not lost. In some countries (France) customers rent
> tables in coffee shops and use them for an office. I've considered
> renting one for my own business as I could easily deal with spyware
> removal and Windoze updates any place I have a high speed connection.
> I rent a table in your establishment, put up a small sign offering my
> services, and the coffee shop gets some more revenue. I'll leave the
> rate structure to your imagination.
>
> Even if you don't decide to rent tables, it would be interesting to
> add it to the rate card. That should give the table hogs a clue as to
> what's expected. You might also want to add "wireless tech support"
> to the menu as answering question about the wireless might be a
> problem.
>
> Now, if you want publicity, consider charging for the use of the
> wireless by the pound. Put a weight scale at the counter, weigh the
> PDA or laptop, and charge proportionally on the logic that heavy
> weight laptops occupy more table space and should therefore pay more.
> That should get your coffee shop mentioned in the local newspapers
> just prior to you discontinuing the practice.
>
> As for free wireless, I'm all in favor of having someone else pay for
> my connectivity. It doesn't really matter whom as long as it's not
> me.
>
> Another joy of free and open wireless is the neighbors and
> freeloaders. I was at a local coffee and munchie place last night and
> noticed 3 cars across the street, with drivers in the front seat,
> banging on their laptops. Obviously, they didn't buy anything. They
> just wanted to use the free wireless. Same with the nearby neighbors.
> One of the hot spots I help maintain has a little monitor routine I
> scribbled. It displays the connection count. The owner then counts
> physical laptops in the coffee shop. Invariably, there are more
> connections than visible customers with laptops, usually in the
> parking lot. Perhaps this might be a clue as to why few businesses
> offer free wireless.
>
> Oh, whatever you do, make sure you have "client isolation" or some
> similar feature enabled. (Linksys calls it "AP isolation"). This
> will prevent wireless clients from seeing each other so that you don't
> have someone walk in with a laptop full of viruses and attack everyone
> elses laptop in the shop.
>

Johann <gmwemail-(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>Lots of good food for thought there. What concerns me too, is that
>freebie users are more likely than others to download porn or do illegal
>things that can't be traced to them but you betcha can be traced to my IP.

I don't think you have to worry about that for user in the coffee
shop. However, users in the parking lot and nearby neighbors are a
different story. However, there are problems with peer to peer users
downloading DVD images at free hotspots.

Some of the measures used by various coffee shops to control access
are:

1. Password from the counter, that must be entered on the initial
splash or signon page which changes every hour or two. The idea is
that even someone that buys something, will need a new password every
hour. One shop just has a bunch of kids spelling flash cards posted
every hour or so when it changes.

2. WPA key that changes every day. Usually posted inside the coffee
shop where only the patrons can see it.

3. Drastically reduced TX power on the access point.

4. Distance measuring devices that can tell if the client is inside
the coffee shop or outside the building. I worked on one of these
devices. Not available yet.

5. Turn off the wireless after 6PM. One local bar does this to clear
the wireless table hogs as things get busy.

6. Download quotas and QoS. These are rule based quotas for what an
individual client may download. QoS is also good for preventing a
user from hogging all your bandwidth. However, administration is
tricky and there are ways around quotas.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

> Thanks for the suggestion. Just curious - why do you advocate providing
free access? No other HotSpot in my area is free.

....because it is practical and realistic... Many people who operate
paid HotSpots hype that it's working for them only cause they want
others to be paid HotSpots - the fact is most people are not going to
pay for it. Your business is (selling coffee, or bowling, or a train
station, or whatever) NOT selling Internet on a temporary basis for a
rather small chunk of time out of someone's day. You should focus on
your business and your primary objectives - if selling Internet was one
of them, and you thought you would be any good at it, then you should
be working for T-mobile or some other paid HotSpot provider. Simply
put, don't fall into some false expectation that offering paid Internet
access is going to make you lots of money, or even help your failing
business - use the free internet acecss to supplement and encourage
people to your primary business.

Remember that if you are providing paid Internet access, then people
are going to expect certain things for something they paid for - such
as tech support. Are you prepared/going to take the time out of your
primary business activities to help soccer mom's configure their PCs,
help them download stuff, or check email, etc? Having it free
eliminates your responsibility in that big "headache"

Just because it's free doesn't mean random people who have not
purchased something from you should get to use it - find a way to
provide it free - think of it as a "reward" or "courtesy" to those who
do buy from you. They will remember it, and as a result you will have
the best kind of customer, a repeat customer.

> Oh, whatever you do, make sure you have "client isolation" or some
similar feature enabled.

....this can be accomplished on the Linksys WRT54G(L) devices under
Blocked Services (ports 135 to 139, and 445) Don't get too carried
away with this, some people may WANT to connect with other users to
play games, etc. ...of course you could make the argument that they
should create thier own Ad-Hoc network then.

> What concerns me too, is that freebie users are more likely than others to download porn or do illegal things that can't be traced to them but you betcha can be traced to my IP.

....thats why you use DNS Redirector to prevent that.


1. best idea, and yeah DNS Redirector can do that.

2. ...but some might not want to devote thier time, or paying thier
consultant $$ to do this. Also, typing in stuff can be hard for some
techno-challenged people. You need to devote time to running your
business, not helping soccer mom's get connected or thier machine
re-configured every time you change it.

3. This has bad ramifications, I know your thought was it prevents
people using it from beyond the cafe walls, but if there are many users
within the cafe walls this can cause problems.

4. Not wide-spread commercially available yet, but some access points
with AutoCell technology can do this. I have seen a calculation that
can be done to determine the distance from the antenna, but most rooms
aren't a perfect circle. Hey, you there in the corner, step into the
sweet spot :-/

5. DNS Redirector can do this automatically.

6. Cisco PIX 515+ and Linksys WRT54G(L) devices can do this.