The Hotspot Menu

Select Hotspot from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Endian Hotspot is a powerful hotspot that can be used for wireless connections as well as for wired LAN connections. The hotspot’s captive portal will capture all connections passing through the BLUE zone, no matter what device they come from. Therefore the hotspot does not work if the BLUE zone is disabled.

Hotspot

The hotspot can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the main switch on this page. A link to the hotspot’s administration interface is shown in the left-hand menu. When enabled, clicking on the link opens a new browser window with the hotspot administration interface. Also, you can access the hotspot user administration interface from the left-hand menu which allows you to create and manage additional hotspot admins and account editors. A Hotspot Admin can fully manage the hotspot interface but cannot access the Endian UTM Main Menu. A Hotspot Account Editor can only access the limited information editor page (https://GREEN IP/admin/infoedit) which simply allows users accounts to be searched, edited and enabled/disabled.

From the main hotspot page you should see the following options:

Role

Here you can select the role of the Hotspot:

  • Master / Standalone – This will enable the hotspot to run as the master (or standalone) server which means this is where the user database, portal configuration, and settings will be configured for all satellite systems.
  • Satellite – This will enable the hotspot to run as a satellite system (only) which means the device will receive most of the hotspot information from the Master hotspot system.
  • External RADIUS Server – This will enable the hotspot such that it can be integrated with an existing, external RADIUS server (this must be setup separate from Endian).

In order to configure the hotspot in a distributed fashion with the Master / Satellite configuration you must perform some preconfiguration on each device.

Note

  1. On the Master system, create a unique OpenVPN account for each remote satellite system. You must utilize a Static IP on each OpenVPN account in order for the hotspot devices to function properly.
  2. Enable the hotspot on the Master system and configure it accordingly.
  3. Activate the VPN account in the list of hotspot satellite systems. Then click ‘Save’ and then ‘Apply’.
  4. Create the OpenVPN client account on the satellite system by going to VPN > OpenVPN client (Gw2Gw). Add a new VPN client account for each satellite using the information provided during Step 1.
  5. Enable the Satellite hotspot, enter the Master (GREEN) IP address and select the VPN tunnel from the dropdown dedicated for the Master hotspot. Then click ‘Save’ and then ‘Apply’.

Note

You can verify the satellite system is connected properly by viewing the satellite system’s Hotspot Administration interface. You should see a limited interface that only shows the Reports section and nothing else.

Master / Standalone

Hotspot password
The hotspot will automatically generate a random password to be used on remote satellite systems. If you leave this field blank then it will generate a new random password.
Hotspot satellites
You will see a list of available OpenVPN tunnels for use in connecting a remote satellite system. You can select one or more systems (Ctrl-Click for multiple selections) from this list.

Satellite

Master hotspot IP address
In this field you must enter the Master hotspot GREEN (LAN) IP address
Master hotspot password
In this field you must enter the Master hotspot password. This is typically auto-generated on the Master system under Hotspot ‣ Master / Standalone. You can click the Show checkbox to unhide the password mask.
Hotspot VPN tunnel
From this dropdown box you must select the OpenVPN tunnel to use in order to reach the Master hotspot system.

External RADIUS Server

RADIUS Server IP address
In this field you must enter the external RADIUS Server IP address.
Fallback RADIUS Server IP address
In this field you must enter the fallback external RADIUS Server IP address.
RADIUS Server password
In this field you must enter the RADIUS Server password. You can click the Show checkbox to unhide the password mask.
RADIUS Server COA port
In this field you must enter the RADIUS Server COA (Change of Authorization) port number.
RADIUS Server AUTH port
In this field you must enter the RADIUS Server AUTH (Authentication) port number.
RADIUS Server ACCT port
In this field you must enter the RADIUS Server ACCT (Accounting) port number.

Hotspot Admin Interface

This section includes subpages to manage accounts, tickets and ticket rates. Statistics can be viewed as well as current and previous connections. Finally it is possible to enable and manage the hotspot’s settings as well as the SmartConnect feature. Although this interface shares its design with the firewall, it contains a whole new menu structure.

  • Accounts - account and ticket management, statistics and settings
  • Tickets - current connection state of the uplinks
  • Reports - change the password of the hotspot user
  • Settings - change sites that can be accessed without login, enable or disable the anyip feature

Accounts

On this page it is possible to administer user accounts. By default a list of available accounts is shown. This list can be sorted by Username/MAC, Name, Creation date or by the date until which the user account is valid. It is also possible to reverse the sort order by checking Reverse Order and to Hide disabled accounts as well as to search for accounts. Pagination is also available if the number of results exceeds the number of results per page that has been defined in Hotspot > Settings. Every user can be edited by clicking on the Edit link in his row (for details see Hotspot, Accounts, Add new account). Tickets can be added to accounts by clicking on the Add ticket link. It is also possible to view the balance and the connection log of an account by clicking on the Balance and Connections links respectively.

Add a new account

On this page you can create a new account or an existing account can be modified. The information is split into two parts: Login information and Account information. To create an account you can fill the following fields:

Login information

Username
In this field you have to enter the username.
Password
In this field you can enter the password for the new account. If you do not have the time to think of an adequate password just leave this field empty and the password will be autogenerated.
Valid until
The date until the account will be valid. If you want to change it you can either enter the new date manually or click on the ... button and select the new date from the calendar popup.
Active?
This checkbox specifies if the account is enabled or not. If this is ticked on the account is active. If you want to disable a user tick this checkbox off.
Language
Here you can select the user’s native language if available. Otherwise English should be a good choice.
Bandwidth limiting
If you do not want to use default values here you can tick the checkbox and specify an upload and download limit for the account in kb/s.
Static IP address
If you want this account to always use the same IP address you can tick this checkbox and enter the IP address you want (note that his is only available for MAC-based accounts).

Account information

Title
The person’s title (e.g. Mrs., Dr.)
Firstname
The user’s first name.
Lastname
The user’s last name.
Country
The country the user comes from.
City
The city or town the user comes from.
ZIP
The ZIP of the user’s hometown.
Street
The street in which the user lives.
City of birth
The city or town in which the user was born.
Birthdate
The user’s birthdate.
Document ID
The ID of the document that has been used to identify the user.
Document Type
The type of document that has been used to identify the user.
Document issued by
The issuer of the document (e.g. City of New York)
Description
Additional description for the account.

The account information is stored by clicking on the Save button below the form. When editing an existing user it is also possible to print the user information by clicking on the Print button. On the right side of the screen you will notice the Tickets section. If you want to add a new ticket to the user just select the appropriate ticket-type and hit the Add button. Below you will notice a list of all tickets for this user with the following information:

Ticket Type
The type of the ticket
Creation date
The date on which the ticket has been created
Action
If the ticket has not yet been used you will be able to Delete it here by clicking on the appropriate link. If the ticket has alrady been used you will be able to Expire it here by clicking on the appropriate link. When a ticket is expired or deleted the current session of the user is closed by the hotspot. Expiring a prepaid ticket sets the ticket’s available amount to zero. However, when the open amount of a post-paid ticket is billed on the Balance page, the ticket will not be expired.

Add MAC-based account

This page is used just like the Hotspot ‣ Accounts ‣ Add new account page. The only difference is that for this type of accounts username and password are not needed. Instead the MAC-Address of a computer’s network interface is entered and will be used to identify the account.

Import Accounts

It is possible to import accounts from a CSV (comma separated values) file. By clicking on the Browse.. button a file selection dialog is opened. After you have selected the file you can specify whether The first line of the CSV file contains the column titles by ticking or not ticking the checkbox. You should also add a Delimiter in the appropriate field. Usually a delimiter is either a semicolon (;) or a comma (,). If you do not specify a delimiter the system will automatically try to figure out which character has been used as the delimiter. To finally import the CSV file you must click on the Import accounts button.

Export Accounts as CSV

When you click on this link a download dialog will be opened. The download is a CSV file that contains all the account data and can later be re-imported from the Hotspot ‣ Accounts ‣ Import Accounts page.

Account generator

With the account generator it is possible to create a specific number of accounts which share common settings. For example if the account is enabled, add a default ticket, define how the username and password of the accounts are generated. This can be very useful if you want to print prepaid cards which can then be given to customers. The options of the account generator are:

Username
There are 2 different types username generators: Sequential (starts at the Sequence start number) or Random (will use the checked Character sets). For both types a Prefix and the length must be defined.
Password
The Length of the Password and the Charactor sets that should be used to generate the random passwords can be defined here.

Settings This section gives you the possibility to define the Number of accounts to generate, whether to Enable the generated Accounts or not, which Default ticket should be assigned to the accounts and it gives you also the possibility to define the Account expiration (days). To generate users with the defined settings click on the Generate accounts button. You will be asked to confirm the generation process and get the first 5 username / password combinations as an example. Click on Confirm if you like the examples or on Cancel to abort the account generation.

Beneath the account generator options all previously generated accounts are listed. The following columns are shown:

Date
The date on which the accounts have been generated.
Generated Users
The number of users that have been generated.
Actions
If you want the generated users to be enabled in the hotspot you can load them by clicking on the Load settings link. If the users have already been loaded and you want to remove them click on the Delete users link. It is also possible to export the username / password combination in CSV format by clicking on the Export as CSV link. This might be useful if you want to print the data on prepaid cards. Generated users which have already used the hotspot will not be deleted when clicking on the Delete users link.

It is possible to define Hotspot Account Editors which only have access to an account editor gui, which gives the possibility to add the legal information and enable/disable an account (https://<firewall_ip>:10443/mangage/hotspot/account/infoedit). You might use this GUI if you have prepaid cards but need to map legal information to the user before enabling it.

Tickets

Ticket Rates

Endian UTM Appliance gives you the possibility to specify more than one ticket rate. You can specify whether you want a rate to be Postpaid or Prepaid. You can also specify whether the measuring method should be Traffic- or Time-based. For Postpaid tickets the price is defined per hour or 10 MB. With Prepaid tickets you can either define the ticket price or the price per hour or 10 MB. If the price is defined per hour / 10 MB the ticket price will be calculated and vice versa. This is mostly useful if you want to sell different prepaid types (e.g. four prepaid tickets with 15 minutes duration should be more expensive than one prepaid ticket with one hour duration). When opening the page a list with all defined ticket rates is shown. In this list you can see the different ticket rates in the following are the columns:

Name
The name you gave to the ticket rate.
Code
This is the ASA code for your ticket rate. Although this can be used only for the ASA hotel management system the field is mandatory.
SmartConnect
Check this box if you want this ticket rate to be available to SmartConnect users.
Payment
This column will tell you if the rate requires Prepaid or Postpaid payment.
Measuring
This column will tell you if the rate uses the surftime (Time-based) or the used traffic (Traffic-based) for measuring.
Amount
This is the amount of time / traffic which will be available if a ticket is created with this rate.
Price
This shows the hourly / per 10MB price and the ticket price specified for this rate.
Actions
Here you can choose to Edit or Delete a ticket rate by clicking on the respective link.

It is not possible to change anything but the Rate Name and the Rate Code after saving the ticket as anything else would lead to inconsistent accounting data. In order to introduce a new price for a rate, rename the rate to “ratename (date)” and create a new rate with the origínal name.

Quick Ticket

On this page you can create a new user account with a ticket of your choice already assigned. The username and password are automatically generated. All you have to do is click on the ticket rate you wish to use and the user will be created. The Username, Password and Rate are then shown on the screen. It is also possible to print this information by clicking on the Print information button.

Ticket Generator

With the ticket generator it is possible to create a specific number of tickets which share common settings inluding a predefined ticket rate. This can be very useful if you need to create a large set of prepaid ticket codes for your customers to use when accessing the Hotspot or even for use as demo/evaluation codes (especially with the SmartConnect feature). The options of the ticket generator are:

Ticket Code
The Prefix text (string) to use in creating the batch set of tickets as well as the Length of the ticket name and the Charactor sets that should be used to generate the random tickets can be defined here.
Settings
This section gives you the possibility to define the Number of tickets to generate and the Assigned Rate that should be assigned to the tickets. To generate users with the defined settings click on the Generate tickets button. You will be asked to confirm the generation process and get the first 5 ticket code combinations as an example. Click on Confirm if you like the examples or on Cancel to abort the ticket generation.

Beneath the ticket generator options all previously generated tickets are listed. The following columns are shown:

Date
The date on which the tickets have been generated.
Generated Tickets
The number of tickets that have been generated.
Actions
If you want the generated tickets to be enabled in the hotspot you can load them by clicking on the Load settings link. If the tickets have already been loaded and you want to remove them click on the Delete tickets link. It is also possible to export the ticket code combinations in CSV format by clicking on the Export as CSV link. This might be useful if you want to print the data. Generated tickets which have been used or are in use by the hotspot will not be deleted when clicking on the Delete tickets link.

Above this section is a link to Show generated tickets which will take you to a page that shows each generated ticket code, what user has used a given code, the assigned ticket rate, the date the ticket was created, and an optional link to either (1) delete an individual (unused) ticket code or (2) expire a ticket code in use.

Reports

On this page you can see various reports and statistics about the hotspot usage and accounting information.

Balance (Filter Period)

This is the standard view. It shows a list of accounts followed by a summary at the bottom of the page. Each item in the list contains the following data:

Username
The username or MAC address of the account. If you click on the Username you will be redirected to the users Balance page.
Amount used
The amount of money that has been used by this account.
Paid
The money this user has already paid.
Duration
The time this user has been connected to the hotspot.
Traffic
The traffic that has been generated by this account.

At the top of the page it is possible to enter a start and an end date. After entering these dates into the From and Until fields respectively and then clicking on the Filter button the page will be reloaded with statistics between these two dates only. Clicking on a username opens the user’s Account Balance page with detailed information about the user’s tickets and billing. It shows the following information on the top part:

User Information
Here you will find information about the user, i.e. the Name as well as the Username, the City of birth, the Birthdate, the Document identification number and the Issuing party of the document.
Account Balance
This contains information about the Account balance. The Paid surf time is shown first, followed by the Used surf time. Right beneath the calculated Available surf time is shown. This is also shown for the traffic (Paid traffic, Used traffic, Available traffic).
Postpaid payment
In this column you can see the amount of money that the selected user has already paid - this will be displayed in the currency you configured on the Settings page. Below you can see the Amount of money that the user still has to pay. This box will be displayed in green if everything has already been paid. Otherwise the box will be red and you can choose the amount of money the user wants to pay and bill that amount by clicking on the Bill button. If a user wants to pay a Postpaid ticket, it is enough to enter the amount he wants to pay into the Amount field and click on the Bill button.

You can also print these statistics by clicking on the >>> Print button.

Available surf time shows the sum of the remaining surf time of all time-based tickets. Available traffic shows the sum of the remaining traffic of all traffic-based tickets.

Open Accounting Items

The link for this is available from the Balance (Filter Period) page on the top right-hand side. This page displays a list of statistics like Hotspot ‣ Statistics ‣ Filter Periods but with one additional column. The Amount to pay column shows the amount of money for each account that has not been paid yet.

Connections

On this page you can see all currently active connections on the hotspot. The list contains the following columns:

Satellite
The name (OpenVPN) of the remote hotspot satellite system.
Username
The username of the connected account.
Description
The description of the connected account.
Authenticated
Shows whether the connection is authenticated or not.
Duration
The amount of time since this connection has been established.
IDLE Time
The amount of time that the account has been connected without packets from this account passing through the hotspot.
IP Address
The IP address that is connected to the hotspot.
MAC Address
The MAC address of the connected interface.
Action
Every active connection can be closed by clicking on the Logout link in this column.

Connection Log

On this page it is possible to view and filter previous connections. Like in the Hotspot ‣ Active Connections page the list contains various columns. The columns are:

Username
The username of the connection.
IP Address
The IP address that was used for the connection.
MAC Address
The MAC address of the connected interface.
Connection Start
The start time of the connection.
Connection Stop
The end time of the connection.
Download
The amount of data that has been downloaded during this connection.
Upload
The amount of data that has been uploaded during this connection.
Duration
The duration of the connection.

The list can be sorted by any of these columns by selecting the respective entry from the Sort by select box. The sort order can be reversed by ticking the Reverse Order checkbox. It is also possible to filter connections by entering a Start Date or an End Date in the respective fields and then clicking on the Filter button. If more results than specified in Hotspot ‣ Settings are found, pagination is enabled and you can browse through the pages by clicking on the First, Previous, Next and Last links above the list.

Export Connection Logs as CSV

The connection logs can be downloaded by clicking on the Export as CSV link. The download is in CSV format and contains all relevant information.

SmartConnect Transactions

On this page it is possible to view and filter previous SmartConnect connections. Like in the Hotspot ‣ Active Connections page the list contains various columns. The columns are:

Transaction ID
The transaction identification string (mostly for accountability).
Order Time
The date and time of the transaction.
Payment
The payment status which indicates whether payment was successfully collected (free tickets will show Completed).
User
The user account created which is the phone number for SMS-based SmartConnect transactions.
Phone Number
The phone number provided during account creation.
SMS
Indicates the status of sending the SMS account information (SMS Gateway).
SMS Time
The date and time the SMS was processed.
Name
The name provided during account creation.
Info
The address, zipcode, and country information provided during account creation.

The list can be sorted by any of these columns by selecting the respective entry from the Sort by select box. The sort order can be reversed by ticking the Reverse Order checkbox. It is also possible to Search for any text within the Transaction ID field by entering a search string and then hitting the Enter key (leave blannk for all). If more results than specified in Hotspot ‣ Settings are found, pagination is enabled and you can browse through the pages by clicking on the First, Previous, Next and Last links above the list.

Settings

On this page it is possible to change the hotspot’s settings. The page contains two subpages for System settings and settings regarding the different Languages.

System

This page consists of three subsections. The first subsection is called Global Settings. This subsection lets you define default values for connections as well as for the administration interface.

Homepage after successful login
This lets you specify which page to open after a user has logged in successfully.
Portal Background Homepage
This lets you specify a web url to use as a background image for the Hotspot login portal.
Show login form

Here you can specify how you want the Hotspot login form displayed:

  • immediately will display the login form immediately over the background homepage.
  • manually will display the background homepage with a top navigation bar allowing the user to access the registration page any time. The homepage domain will be navigable without user registration; however all other sites require registration (useful to promote your own site or provide branding/information).
  • after x seconds will display the login form after a user-specified period of seconds over the background homepage (user is notified of impending registration time on the navigation bar)
Enable AnyIP
Here you can enable the AnyIP feature which should assist clients who are not using DHCP and allow them to access the Hotspot even with a static IP that does not belong to the Hotspot (Blue Zone) IP subnet.
Allowed Sites / Access
On this page you can define which sites or IP addresses should be accessible without being authenticated. One site per line is allowed. A site can be a normal domain name or a string of the format protocol:IP[/mask]:port, e.g. www.endian.com or tcp:192.168.20.0/24:443.
Currency
Here you can specify the symbol of your currency.
Popular Countries
Here you can specify a list of countries that you want pre-populated for users to choose from when they are going through the account creation process.
Logout user on Idle-Timeout
In this dropdown you can select after how many minutes a user will be logged out when inactive (Default = 15 Minutes).
Default account lifetime
Here you can enter the number of days an account will be valid (Default = 365 days).
Items per page
This value defines how many (line) items will be displayed on each page in the hotspot administration interface.
Bandwidth limiting
This option lets you specify the default upload and download limits per user in kb/s. If these fields are left empty no limit is applied.
Delete disabled accounts daily
Here you can enable the automatic deletion of disabled user accounts on a daily basis.

The second subsection is for Character set for Generated Passwords. Here you can customize how random passwords are created including the total length, whether to use upper/lower-case letters, numbers and any additional special characters.

The second subsection is called Endian Hotspot API. If you want to integrate the hotspot of Endian UTM Appliance into an already existing system of yours, you can set the parameters here.

Mode
Here you can choose whether your system uses Endian‘s Generic API/JSON interface or the ASA jHotel interface. The ASA jHotel interface is only needed by hotels that use the ASA jHotel hotel management software whereas the generic API can be implemented in other software systems.

The other options depend on the selection you made here.

API enabled
This option is only visible if you chose Generic API/JSON in the selectbox above. The API is enabled if this checkbox is ticked.
Accounting URL
This option is only visible if you chose Generic API/JSON in the selectbox above. The hotspot will send accounting information to this URL. If you do not want the hotspot to handle accounting you can leave this field empty.
Accounting URL requires HTTP Authentication
This option is only visible if you chose Generic API/JSON in the selectbox above. If the URL you provided above requires HTTP authentication you must tick this checkbox. Two new textfields will appear where you can enter the Username and Password respectively.
ASA jHotel Interface enabled
This option is only visible if you chose ASA jHotel in the selectbox above. By ticking this checkbox you can enable the ASA jHotel interface.
ASA jHotel URL
This option is only visible if you chose ASA jHotel in the selectbox above. Here you can enter the URL of your ASA jHotel interface.
Allow guest registration (SelfService)
This option is only visible if you chose ASA jHotel in the selectbox above. If the hotel guests should be able to register themselves this checkbox has to be ticked.
Guest registration default rate
This option is only visible if you chose ASA jHotel in the selectbox above. In this selectbox you can select the default rate that will be applied to new accounts.

Finally the options can be saved by clicking on the Save button.

SmartConnect

On this page it is possible to configure the SmartConnect (self-service) feature of the hotspot. The SmartConnect system can support fully paid self-service ticket creation or the use of free tickets with no customer payment.

Enable SmartConnect
Check this box to enable the SmartConnect feature in the hotspot.
Enable User Registration via SMS
Check this box to enable the SMS registration notification option. You’ll need to activate an additional SMS Bundle activation code under System ‣ Event Notifications ‣ SMS Notifications prior to enabling this feature.

Note

Currently in order to use the SmartConnect feature you must use SMS as the registration notification method if you want users to be able to create their own user account (self-service). Otherwise, only users you’ve previously created in the hotspot administration interface will be able to access the web.

Allowed Country Codes
Here you can select the country codes allowed to be used by hotspot users for the purposes of SMS notifications.
Limit free tickets per account
Here you can select whether to limit the amount of free tickets that can be used. The default option is “no limit” or you can select “time limit” of one free ticket every user-specified minutes.
Enable Paid Tickets
Check this box to allow users to pay for hotspot tickets by using Paypal (or credit card).

If you Enable Paid Tickets, then you will have the following options available:

Enable Paypal Sandbox
Check this box to enable the Paypal sandbox for testing/demo purposes (only). Using the sandbox enables you to test integration with the Paypal API without actually running live transactions with real money.
Paypal API Username
Provide your unique Paypal API username.
Paypal API Password
Provide your unique Paypal API password.
Paypal API Signature
Provide your unique Paypal API signature.

Note

You must sign up and create a Paypal account in order to properly setup the Endian Hotspot SmartConnect feature and receive customer payments.

Languages

On this page all language-dependent options can be set. In the first section (Supported Languages) of this page it is possible to choose the Supported Languages for your hotspot. The languages must be selected in the multi-select box and then saved by clicking on the Store button.

In the second section (Templates) it is possible to modify the four templates (Welcome Page, Account Print, Terms of Service, Help) for every language. The language can be chosen in the Edit language selectbox whereas the template type can be selected from the Template selectbox. The Welcome Page template is presented to the user before logging in while the Account Print template is printed and handed out to the users after their registration. The Terms of Service page is presented if the user clicks the link next to the checkbox asking them to confirm they accept the Terms of Service before being able to login. The content of the templates can be changed with the help of a fully featured WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. In the Account Print template it is also possible to use placeholders which will then be replaced with real data when a user is registered. The templates can be saved by clicking on the Store button below the editor.

The third section is called Strings and contains translations for strings that are used in the webinterface of the hotspot. The translations can be changed and new translations can be added. This is done by selecting the language from the Edit language selectbox and then filling out the textfields. The translations are saved by clicking on the Store button.

Account Print template placeholders:

$title
the title of the account holder
$firstname
the first name of the account holder
$lastname
the last name of the account holder
$username
the username of the account
$password
the password of the account