Working with Hotspot (WISPr) Services

A hotspot is a venue or area that provides Internet access to devices with wireless networking capability such as notebooks and smart phones.

Hotspots are commonly available in public venues such as hotels, airports, coffee shops and shopping malls. Configure a traditional (WISPr 1.0) hotspot service to provide public access to users via its WLANs. In addition to the controller and its managed APs, you will need the following to deploy a hotspot:

Captive Portal: A special web page, typically a login page, to which users that have associated with your hotspot will be redirected for authentication purposes. Users will need to enter a valid user name and password before they are allowed access to the Internet through the hotspot.

RADIUS Server: A Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server through which users can authenticate.

For installation and configuration instructions for the captive portal and RADIUS server software, refer to the documentation that was provided with them. After completing the steps below, you will need to edit the WLAN(s) for which you want to enable Hotspot service. The controller supports up to 32 WISPr hotspot service entries, each of which can be assigned to multiple WLANs.