It is possible to share a wireless Internet connection and charge people to use your service.

The minimal initial investment includes:

• $20 monthly for a Captive Portal (billing and user authentication)
• $60 per node
• $19.99 monthly for 256Kbps Internet connection

This article will cover information you need to start your own business providing Internet service through Wi-Fi hotspots or mesh nodes. I will also cover what you need if you are a small business looking to add paid wireless service in-house for customers.

For example: you own a café, restaurant or cigar shop and want wireless available for customers to login and pay $2 for an hour Internet service.

Another example is a school or church providing wireless
access to staff while also providing access for the public to pay for Internet.

Forward

There are five main parts to cover and I will address each
one in this order. I recommend you read through them entirely in order.

1. Firmware Options
   1. Standard
   2. Hotspot
   3. Mesh
2. Hardware Options for Wireless Nodes
   1. Do it Yourself
   2. Ready to Run
3. Node Management
4. Billing and Account Handling
5. References

1. Firmware Options

Flashing the wireless routers with different firmware opens up customizable options allowing devices to be used in all kinds of cool ways. 3rd party hotspot and mesh firmware generally offers far more advanced features for customizing the operation of the wireless router.

1.1 Standard Firmware

This is the default firmware, the software you would see from Linksys, Cisco, Netgear or a Airlink101 router.

1.2 Hotspot Firmware

Hotspot firmware gives you more advanced networking features for configuring a hotspot ideal for small business, a café, bookstore, church or around home. If you know how to setup VPN’s, program your own user and accounting software then these firmware options will work for you. If you don’t know what a RADIUS Server is then stick with Mesh Firmware. I think some of us want to spend my time growing the wireless ISP business not programming. Know what I mean?

• DD-WRT is probably the best out there and is my favorite and has all the advanced settings. It’s free, and open source. [Wiki: Documentation]
• OpenWRT supports the most hardware models and is the most advanced and requires the a lot of networking and wireless know-how. OpenWRT is also free and open source.
• Sveasoft is a little different from the other open source offerings, as they charge $20 a year for access to firmwares and support. If you are deploying the modified routers commercially, then having paid for support may be what you’re looking for. Their firmware runs on a range of Asus, Belkin, Buffalo and Linksys kit.
• CoovaAP is an OpenWRT-based firmware designed especially for HotSpots. It comes with the CoovaChilli access controller built-in and makes it easily configurable. CoovaAP is perfect for just about any HotSpot application – from WPA Enterprise (with RADIUS accounting) to Free WiFi with Terms of Service acknowledgment to commercial HotSpot captive portal applications

1.3 Mesh Firmware

This firmware takes a multitude of hotspots and creates a mesh topology linking them all together like a web. You can cover vast areas like a campus, town or city in mesh mode. [Wiki: Mesh node network]

Open-mesh

Open-mesh’s firmware is proprietary so you will need to sign up for their services and then visit the dashboard for configuration options. You will use the web based dashboard for configuring all the wireless node’s options. The broadcasting name, Captive Portal, passwords and other options propagate to each node automatically.

2. Hardware Options for Wireless Nodes

It depends on what firmware you want to use. Some hardware comes with proprietary firmware and you will have to buy the wireless hardware from the company themselves or a retailer.

Ready to Run vs. Do it yourself

Benefits of using proprietary firmware and hardware are it relieves the responsibility from your company of managing and troubleshooting hardware and software. That can add up to lots of money and time.

However, doing it all yourself allows for maximum customization of the “system.” I think you will find operating costs much higher because you find your business having to maintain servers (think backups, accounting, legality, hardware replacement, patches, fixing bugs, etc).

2.1 Do it Yourself

If you decide to install your own firmware, you will need to check for compatible hardware.

• Hardware supported by DD-WRT
• Hardware supported by Seasoft
• Hardware supported by OpenWRT

2.2 Ready to Run

I use Open-mesh because unlike other options the firmware comes preloaded and it saves me time and money not having to tinker with hardware and firmware. However using Open-mesh means you cannot use other firmware or your own hardware. [Open-mesh Store]

Open-mesh offers ultra low-cost zero-config, plug & play wireless mesh network solutions that spread an Internet connection throughout a hotel, apartment, neighborhood, village, coffee shop, shopping mall, campground, marina and just about anywhere else you can imagine.

3. Node Management

Managing wireless nodes is done using captive portal solutions. All five listed blow support managment functions in their web based “control panels.” Really all of the captive portal solutions share the same features, the difference is in how well the features work and how clean the products is. Common features are payment gateways, landing pages, bandwidth control, pre-paid printout cards, whitelisting and monitor logs and usage statistics in graph form. You will want to check each one of these companies because one may fit your ideas and needs better. Most of them offer free trials.

• CoovaOM, is both a FREE and low cost service specifically for Open-Mesh networks. Brought to you by Coova, a premier provider of open-source and commercial Hotspot solutions.
• WiFi-CPA Enterprise Server, a comprehensive user management, monitoring and billing platform designed for FREE or Paid HotSpot Access.
• WifiGator, captive portal billing solution for user authentication, Paypal and prepaid tickets. Hosted and Enterpise versions available. WifiGator also has a tool for creating your own WRT54G Firmware based off the settings you choose.
• Wifi-soft, carrier-class operational support system (OSS), monitoring and billing solutions for hotspot operators, wireless ISPs and network operators around the world.
• WorldSpot.net, hosted solution for user athentication and billing.

4. Billing and Account Handling

Billing and user accounts are handled by the captive portal in most cases you will find billing handled by Google Checkout or PayPal. You will wont need to sign up for a merchant account PayPal will take their cut out of each transaction.

5. References

• DD-WRT – How to flash Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS/GX – A guide.
• DD-WRT – How to flash Linksys WRT54Gv8 – A guide.
• Wiki – Learn about RADIUS.
• http://www.streakwave.com – distributer of Wireless Networking Equipment feating a complete like of some of industries top manufacturers.
• http://wimax.com
• http://open-mesh.com
• http://dd-wrt.com
• http://www.wallwatcher.com/ – Collect, view and analyze router logs.

Products to checkout

DD-WRT supports the new Linksys WRT54G2.

Tags: airlink101, captive, cisco, dd-wrt, firmware, free, hardware, hotspot, how, internet

Related posts:

1. Guide to Hotspot Systems
2. Setting up a Hotspot Business
3. ePoint HotSpot
4. How Do You Make A Wireless Hotspot?
5. CoovaAP and CoovaChilli