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Copyright 2005, Wifi-soft Solutions Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
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incidental or consequential damages resulting from furnishing this material, or the performance or
use of this product. We reserve the right to change the product specifications and implementation
without notice. Information in this document may also change without notice.
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rights. Trademarks mentioned in this publication are used for identification purposes only and are
properties of their respective companies.
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 8
INTRODUCING WIFILAN ................................................................................................. 8
FEATURE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 9
RADIUS Features ..................................................................................................... 10
Network management and monitoring features........................................................ 10
Content Filter............................................................................................................ 10
Install management................................................................................................... 10
Customer relationship management ......................................................................... 11
Billing management .................................................................................................. 11
Provisioning Features............................................................................................... 11
Security Features ...................................................................................................... 12
Portal Design and Advertisement ............................................................................. 12
General Features ...................................................................................................... 12
TECHNICAL SUPPORT ..................................................................................................... 12
NOTATIONS AND CONVENTIONS .................................................................................... 12
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS........................................................................................... 13
WIFILAN OVERVIEW................................................................................................. 16
ARCHITECTURE .............................................................................................................. 16
MENU SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 18
RADIUS MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................ 18
CONCEPTS ...................................................................................................................... 19
RADIUS MENU............................................................................................................. 20
RADIUS USERS ............................................................................................................... 20
User Summary........................................................................................................... 21
New User................................................................................................................... 21
List Users .................................................................................................................. 22
User Details .............................................................................................................. 23
Edit User ................................................................................................................... 25
User Accounting........................................................................................................ 25
Edit RADIUS Attributes ............................................................................................ 26
Suspend User ............................................................................................................ 28
Unsuspend User ........................................................................................................ 29
Delete User ............................................................................................................... 29
RADIUS GROUPS ............................................................................................................ 30
New Group ................................................................................................................ 30
List Groups................................................................................................................ 30
Edit Group ................................................................................................................ 31
Edit RADIUS Attributes ............................................................................................ 31
Delete Group............................................................................................................. 32
GATEWAY ...................................................................................................................... 32
List Gateways............................................................................................................ 32
New Gateway ............................................................................................................ 33
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Edit Gateway............................................................................................................. 34
Edit Radius Attributes ............................................................................................... 35
Delete Gateway......................................................................................................... 35
AUTOLOGIN ................................................................................................................... 36
List AutoLogins ......................................................................................................... 36
New AutoLogin.......................................................................................................... 36
Edit AutoLogin .......................................................................................................... 37
Edit Radius Attributes ............................................................................................... 37
Accounting ................................................................................................................ 38
Delete AutoLogin ...................................................................................................... 38
LOCATIONS .................................................................................................................... 39
New Location ............................................................................................................ 39
List Locations............................................................................................................ 40
Edit Location............................................................................................................. 40
Delete Location......................................................................................................... 41
HOW LOCATION ID IS USED? ................................................................................................. 41
USER APPROVALS .......................................................................................................... 41
USER IMPORT AND EXPORT............................................................................................ 43
Importing Users ........................................................................................................ 43
Exporting Users ........................................................................................................ 44
NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING................................................ 45
ADMIN ........................................................................................................................... 45
Administer Monitoring.............................................................................................. 45
Manage Alerts........................................................................................................... 46
Device Defaults......................................................................................................... 47
DEVICE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................. 48
New Device ............................................................................................................... 49
List Devices............................................................................................................... 54
Edit Device................................................................................................................ 54
Add Sub-Device......................................................................................................... 56
EDIT SUBDEVICE ............................................................................................................. 57
DELETING SUBDEVICE ..................................................................................................... 58
Network Status .......................................................................................................... 58
Monitoring Details.................................................................................................... 59
Status Change History .............................................................................................. 60
Network Alerts .......................................................................................................... 61
IP change management............................................................................................. 61
INSTALL MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................. 62
Collecting Install Data.............................................................................................. 62
List Install Info.......................................................................................................... 63
SITE MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................... 64
List Sites .................................................................................................................... 65
Edit Site Details ........................................................................................................ 65
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................... 66
Adding Inventory Item............................................................................................... 67
List Inventory Items................................................................................................... 68
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Introduction
This chapter presents an overview of WiFiLAN and explains high-level concepts required to
understand the working of WiFiLAN.
Introducing WiFiLAN
WiFiLAN is a web-based, hosted solution for managing and maintaining Wi-Fi networks remotely.
It integrates all key features required for managing, installing, configuring and maintaining Wi-Fi
networks in a single intuitive online application. It works seamlessly with WiFiLAN backend
servers to provide round-the-clock, reliable service to the customers.
WiFiLAN is hosted on a Linux-based platform in a state-of-the-art data center and can be
accessed from any where in the world with the help of an SSL-capable web browser. The solution
is device-agnostic i.e. it is not designed for a specific hardware vendor and supports wide range
of wireless gateways from vendors like Cisco, Zyxel, Gemtek, Colubris, DLink and others. It
provides a range of services including RADIUS authentication, gateway management, monitoring,
CRM, billing, user management and provisioning, reporting and content filtering. Customers dont
have to install any software or hardware on their premises to use WiFiLAN. The above services
can be access securely and remotely from Wifi-Softs servers.
Some of the key attributes of WiFiLAN are as follows:
Comprehensive
WiFiLAN integrates all WLAN management features into one single application. It avoids
the task of juggling disparate applications and instead provides a simple, unified view of
the operational data. WiFiLAN offers array of backend services including RADIUS
authentication and accounting, network monitoring and management, CRM, billing,
automated user provisioning and security. Having an integrated solution also makes it
easier to train support staff and keeps the operational cost down.
Scalable Architecture
Redundancy
Fault Tolerance
Security
To ensure the security of the data, all servers are protected by a firewall. Only authorized
clients are allowed access to our services through configured ports. WiFiLAN application
can be accessed only through an SSL-capable browser to ensure that the data between
customers browser and the server is protected from hackers and malicious users.
Ease-of-use
Managing Wi-Fi networks can be technically challenging. WiFiLAN provides a simple and
intuitive management interface that makes the task of managing Wi-Fi networks easy and
trouble-free. The application is very easy to learn and extensive documentation is
available for each feature. Each data entry screen displays helpful notes to reduce errors
while entering data.
Feature Summary
WiFiLAN provides range of features required to operate large-scale, distributed Wi-Fi networks.
These features run on a common WiFiLAN management platform, which in turn makes use of
WiFiLAN servers. At high-level, these features can be categorized into:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
RADIUS management
Network management and monitoring
CRM Services
Billing and Customer Management
Reporting
Provisioning
Portal Design and advertising
The data needed for running WiFiLAN resides in the WiFiLAN database.
RADIUS Features
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Content Filter
1.
2.
3.
4.
Install management
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
10
Billing management
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Provide interface to seamlessly integrate web-based registration with the billing system
Provides credit-card clearing and authorization
Architecture support wide range of merchant gateways.
Allows administrators to create customized billing plans with validity periods
Comprehensive prepaid card management
Supports simple and cumulative tax structure
Provides support for promotions and discounts
Allows administrators to export and print prepaid coupons
Detailed billing reports
a. Revenue by site, location and plans
b. User transactions
c. Time-based reports
d. Promotion effectiveness
e. Prepaid usage
f. Declined card reports
g. Account receivable
h. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly revenue reports
i. Credit report
j. Expense report
k. Plan fraud report
10. Sends automated (template) reminders and receipts
11. Supports automatic suspension of user accounts when credit card fails. Releases the
user when the card transaction succeeds
Provisioning Features
1. Web-based integration interface for developers
2. Create custom portal pages for user registration, account management and trouble ticket
reporting
3. Location-aware user registration
4. Real-time credit card checking and clearing
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Security Features
1.
2.
3.
4.
Create custom designs for login, landing, signup and account management portal pages
Customize images, text, links, advertisements and layout of the portal pages
Choose from different readymade templates
Simple intuitive interface for portal design along with instant preview option
Upload any custom advertisements on login and landing pages.
General Features
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Technical Support
If you need technical support while using WiFiLAN, please refer to the online documentation on
our website: http://www.wifi-soft.com or send us an email at techsupport@wifi-soft.com.
WiFiLAN provides a Report problem feature that you can use to submit a bug or feature request.
Additionally, comprehensive help is available for each WiFiLAN screen by selecting the Help
menu.
Description
The set of people who will be customer of WiFiLAN.
Usually WISP or Wi-Fi network operators.
The set of people in an organization (WISP) who will use
WiFiLAN for managing and operating their Wi-Fi networks
The users who will use the Wi-Fi services provided by
WISP or Wi-Fi operators.
The field technicians who go into the fields to do Wi-Fi
installations
The staff that handles customer problems and questions.
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Important Concepts
NOC is the centralized location where backend servers like RADIUS, Web, Mail, DNS and
Monitoring servers are hosted. Additionally, it also host management consoles to manage
remote network elements from a centralized location.
Wifi-Soft provides a hosted NOC solution to Wi-Fi service providers and hotspot operators.
This frees the operators from maintaining their own NOC and employing people to manage it.
Moreover, they dont have to worry about performing software upgrades, maintaining
backups, doing regular maintenance and fine-tuning their servers. Wifi-Soft handles all these
tasks for them thus allowing them to focus on the core business. Hosted solution offers
operators considerable cost saving and enhanced productivity.
RADIUS Services
RADIUS server provides AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) services to the
network operators. These services ensure that only valid and authenticated customers get
access to the network resources and the session information gets tracked and archived for
billing purpose.
o
Authentication
Authentication is the process in which the RADIUS server verifies the username and
password supplied by the user. The username and password are sent to the RADIUS
server in the Auth-Request packet. Typically, the RADIUS server maintains list of
usernames and passwords in a flat file or database. When the request is received it
does the comparison and returns back success or failure.
o
Authorization
Authorization is the process in which the RADIUS authorizes the end user client and
determines the scheme to use for authentication.
o
Accounting
Security
Security is an important aspect in any service provided to the customer, especially when
sensitive customer information is collected and stored. Information like passwords, credit card
data, personal details like phone number, passwords, etc need to be protected so that
malicious users dont get access to them.
To ensure security, various encoding and encryption schemes are adopted in applications.
RADIUS server uses various encoding schemes like CHAP, MSCHAP, PAP, EAP to encode
the sensitive information passed between the gateway and RADIUS server. Many gateways
support 802.1X recommended security methods like WPA. Since WEP has limitations, many
vendors are making WPA (Wireless Protected Access) as their standard security scheme for
WiFi. Good implementation of WPA requires support from the RADIUS server.
13
Similarly, the data transmitted over public Internet is vulnerable to hackers and malicious
users who can intercept the data and gather sensitive information. To secure this information,
it is necessary to encrypt the transmitted data using strong SSL encryption mechanism.
Network Monitoring
Unlike wired networks, wireless networks are more prone to failures. Misaligned radio,
channel interference, lightening strikes and improper wiring are some of the common causes
for failure in Wi-Fi networks. So, it is important that these network are monitored continuously
and any outages be notified to the concerned parties to minimize the downtime.
WiFiLAN not only supports round-the-clock monitoring of the remote gateways, but also
monitors access points installed on the internal wireless or wired network. Network status
information is consolidated on the server and presented to the network administrator in a
tabular format. This feature is especially important for service providers who have outdoor
Wi-Fi network and want to ensure high reliability of their network.
Billing
Billing feature allows service providers to charge their customers over the Internet using a
payment gateway. Since minimum human intervention is required for Internet billing, it
provides a cost effective way of collecting recurring or one-time payments from their
customers.
Billing gateway (e.g. Authorize.net, Verisign, PayPal, OpenEcho, etc) are third-party
application service providers that function as a broker between the customer and the
vendors merchant bank. They convert the Internet transaction data into proprietary format
required by the merchant bank. All billing gateways publish an external applicationprogramming interface (API) that developers use to integrate their applications with the billing
backend systems.
WiFiLAN provides integration to various payment gateways such as Authorize.Net and
OpenEcho. It handles all the interactions with the payment gateways including credit card
authorization, recurring billing, debit and credit transactions, billing reports and fraud
prevention. WiFiLAN also provides integration with RADIUS accounting data to allow
administrators to charge customers based on their usage.
Portal Design
Portal design allows administrators to create custom portal pages for user login and
registration. Most hotspots, free or paid, have a login page where the user enters his/her
authorization information before getting access to Internet service. For paid access, the user
needs to enter his/her username and password or a prepaid coupon code. For free access,
service provider usually has a click-through login page that displays usage terms and
conditions.
For self-signup hotspots, these login pages also provide a link to a registration page. The
registration page accepts users billing and personal information to create an account in the
user database. Many wireless ISPs also need to provide an account management page so
that their subscribers can view and change their account information online.
WiFiLAN portal section makes the design and implementation of such pages easy and
trouble free. It allows administrators to create highly customized login and registration pages
for each hotspot location. They can apply a particular design template to these pages and
then further customize the template by uploading images and inserting appropriate text.
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The login and landing pages also provide support for adding advertisements. This powerful
feature allows service providers to host commercial advertisements on their login pages thus
allowing them to generate extra revenues from their hotspots.
Content Filtering
Content filtering is an important function for hotspots serving public places like cafes,
restaurants, libraries and parks. It prevents users from accessing undesirable Internet content
like pornography, adult entertainment, violence, etc.
Unlike other content filtering solutions, WiFiLANs content filtering solution doesnt require
proxy server or a dedicated hardware. Administrators just need to point their DNS servers to
Wifi-Softs DNS servers to enable content filtering at their locations.
It is also important that the content filtering database is kept up-to-date with the everchanging landscape of the Internet. WiFiLAN updates its database twice a week from a thirdparty source, which is solely responsible for constantly updating the list of blacklisted sites.
IP Change Management
Since RADIUS protocol is an UDP-based protocol, any remote device can send RADIUS
packets to the server for authentication. However, RADIUS server only handles
authentication packets that are received from a legitimate source. It determines the legitimate
source by verifying the IP address of the device with the one configured in its database. Only
gateways/devices with pre-configured IP address are allowed to use AA services on the
RADIUS server.
However, the above restriction enforces that all gateway should use static (non-changing) IP
address to authenticate itself with the gateway. Or else, there should be some mechanism in
place that will automatically detect the IP address change and will update the RADIUS
information accordingly.
WiFiLAN provides this service for selected gateways thereby allowing services providers to
use dynamic IP addresses for their gateways. Since dynamic IP addresses are cheaper than
static ones, this feature helps service providers to cut down their cost of operations.
Computer systems are prone to failures. To circumvent outages and loss of data during these
failures, it is important to maintain redundancy within the system. This mechanism will ensure
that the end users will not get affected and will continue to get desirable services when the
primary server goes down.
WiFiLAN is designed with a built-in redundancy. It maintains dual server architecture in which
one server acts as a primary and other one as secondary. All data from the primary server
gets replicated on the secondary server. In case of failure of the primary server, the users are
transparently redirected to the secondary server. Since WiFiLAN maintains real-time
replication of data no data loss occurs during this transition. This ensures all services are
operational on the secondary server.
15
Email Verification
Email is widely used medium of communication in the interconnected world. With the increase in
popularity of email, its misuse has also increased. Spam is a common example. Many people are
reluctant to enter their correct email address when they signup online. However, wireless service
providers need correct email address to send electronic invoices and receipts.
WiFiLAN provides a feature that allows service providers to enforce an extra email verification
step during the online signup process. The system automatically sends a verification email to
customers email address that contains instructions to activate the account. Only customers who
have entered valid email addresses are able to activate their account. This ensures that the
customer database contains only valid email addresses and the service provider can be assured
that their billing and announcement emails will reach the intended parties.
WiFiLAN Overview
Architecture
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The diagram below provides a high-level architectural overview on the WiFiLAN system. The
WiFiLAN management platform is the central component of the architecture. The end-users
interact with this component to manage the functioning of the backend servers. WiFiLAN provides
range of features including AAA services, network management and monitoring, CRM, billing,
reporting and user provisioning.
Network administrators, customer service representatives and managers are primary users of
WiFiLAN. The network administrators are generally concerned with the network and RADIUS
sections where they specify different parameters to control the functioning of their Wi-Fi networks.
The CSRs usually work on the CRM section and use data provided by other sections to solve
customer problems. Finally, the managers view different types of reports, billing data and
constantly review information stored in WiFiLAN.
WiFiLAN management platform uses several different servers to provide various functions to its
users. The billing server is responsible for communicating with the external payment gateway to
perform credit card billing and clearance. The RADIUS server provides authentication,
authorization and accounting services to the end users. The Network Monitoring server
periodically scans all the remote gateways and attached devices to determine whether they are
operating properly. It sends notifications to the administrators in an event of failure. The Trap
Manager listens for traps and heartbeats (periodic pulse) from the remote devices and notifies
administrators of undesirable events. Finally, the content filter allows administrators to filter
unwanted content from reaching the end users on their networks.
WiFiLAN application runs on a web server so it can be access from anywhere on the Internet
using a compatible browser. It uses SSL to ensure that the data transmitted between the browser
and the web server is encrypted and secure. All the data resides in WiFiLAN database where it
gets replicated and backed up periodically. This ensures that the data remains safe and secure.
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Menu Summary
Home
RADIUS
o Users
o Groups
o Gateways
o AutoLogins
o Locations
o Approvals
o Reports
Network
o Admin
o Devices
o Status
o Install
o Inventory
o Content Filter
o Reports
CRM
o Admin
o Tickets
o Emails
o FAQ
o K-Base
o Reports
Billing
o Admin
o Users
o Plans
o Prepaid
o Transactions
o Promotions
o Reports
Admin
o Accounts
o History
o User Attrs
o Device Attrs
o Edit Profile
Help
o Online Help
o Documentation
Logout
RADIUS Management
Wifi-soft hosts dual, redundant RADIUS server to provide Authentication, Authorization and
Accounting services to its customers. The RADIUS management section allows administrators to
manage users and groups, configure gateways, define autologins, approve users and view
accounting information of all users. In this section, we will learn more about following concepts:
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RADIUS Users
Groups
Gateways
AutoLogins or MAC Addresses
Locations
Approvals
Concepts
Users having common RADIUS attributes are grouped together in a RADIUS groups. This
allows the administrators to specify common RADIUS attributes once for the group and all the
users belonging to that group will automatically inherit these attributes. This structure greatly
reduces the task of defining RADIUS attributes for users since the common attributes will be
defined once and used for each user.
There are two types of groups device and user. The device group consists of RADIUS
gateways or NAS (Network Access Server), while the user group consists of RADIUS users.
Many advanced wireless gateways like Colubris have a separate authentication mechanism
for the gateways. This allows the administrators to fetch the gateway initialization parameters
from the RADIUS server where they can be managed dynamically. Only the gateways
successfully authenticated are allowed to send user authentication and accounting request to
the RADIUS server. Besides allowing dynamic gateway configurations, this mechanism also
prevents an unauthorized gateway from using any RADIUS services.
AutoLogin
Gateways
Gateways are devices that function as gatekeepers in a wireless network. Depending on the
vendor, gateway is responsible for number of functions. Most common functions of a Wi-Fi
gateway are redirecting unauthenticated users to a login page and providing access to only
authenticated users. It is also responsible for managing user sessions, running network
services like firewall, DHCP, NAT, VPN, etc. Gateways also have a RADIUS client that is
responsible for communicating with the RADIUS server to authenticate users.
19
Locations
Location information is important for hotspot operators who have installed Wi-Fi hotspots in
different places and need a way to track their operational data based on the location of these
hotspots. For examples, a wireless ISP needs to find the correct location of the user when
s/he calls the customer service center and provides username or phone number. Location
also helps managers to generate reports and manage data systematically.
Approvals
Some places like universities may need to provide free access to its students but paid access
to its visitors. In such scenarios, the administrator can configure the user provisioning
process with an extra approval step. All newly created user accounts will be sent for approval
to the administrator, who can allow free access to students and discard the dummy or
illegitimate ones. The approval section provides an interface to approve or deny the newly
signed up users and purge the ones that are denied registration.
RADIUS Menu
The RADIUS management menu is shown below.
Each sub-menu will open multiple tabs in the right browser frame. The functions of each menu
are as follows:
Menu
Users
Groups
Gateways
Function
Manage and configure RADIUS user settings
Manage RADIUS groups
Define user profiles for gateways and configure RADIUS settings
AutoLogins
Locations
Approvals
Reports
Radius Users
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User Summary
The User Summary page provides summarized information of all the users in the system. The
users are categorized by the location where they belong. The summary table displays active,
suspended and online users per location.
You can do a quick search for a particular user(s) based on the login name or the full name of the
user. The search fields accept even partial search entries. For example, you can search for all
users whose first name is John. You can click on the username in the result list to get more
information about the user.
New User
To create a new RADIUS user, click on the New User tab. A form is displayed that accept all
relevant information. The description of each form element is given on the right side.
The user information can be entered in different sub-sections. The Authentication subsection
gathers all the information required for authenticating the user in the RADIUS server. The realm
(e.g. @wifi-soft.com) is automatically appended to the username. The password should be at
least 6 characters in length and should not be same as the username. Since user group is a
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required field, administrators need to create user group entry before creating users in that group.
Similarly, the location has to be defined beforehand. The expiry date captures the date until which
the users account is valid. The account will be automatically deactivated after the expiry date is
reached.
If there is a data validation error, then an error message will be displayed next to the respective
field.
In the above example, administrator wants to capture the apartment number and building number
for this user.
List Users
The List Users tab displays a list of all users in the system sorted by their full names. The Status
column indicates whether the user is active or suspended. The RADIUS server will deny
authentication to all suspended users. Thus by suspending users, the administrators can
temporarily restrict users from using their services. For example, the administrator can suspend
the users account if his/her credit card is expired. The account can be activated once the user
has updated the credit card information and the necessary amount is charged.
The search section provides different options to search for specific users. To search using one of
the standard field (address, city, phone numbers), select the appropriate field from the drop-down
list and enter the search value. The search results are displayed in tabular format.
The list can be sorted by clicking on the underlined columns. Clicking on column will sort the list
in ascending order. Second click will resort the list in descending order.
22
The user list can be exported in a CSV (Comma Separate Values) format. To export the user list,
click on the Export button on the top right corner of the screen. User will be prompted for a
confirmation and an option to save/open the save file as shown.
Note: The exported file can be viewed and modified using Microsoft Excel.
User Details
To view the details for a particular user, click on the username in the user list. All the information
related to the user is displayed in a tabular format. The first table displays the personal
information such as address, phone numbers, etc for the user. If extended attributes are defined,
then the table also contains the extended attribute information for the user.
23
The various buttons on the top of the page are used for viewing or modifying the user information.
To edit the user information, click on the Edit button. The Accounting button displays all the
accounting history for the user. The Radius button allows administrators to change the RADIUS
attributes for the user, and finally, the Suspend button is used for suspending the user. If the user
is in suspended state, then Unsuspended and Delete buttons are displayed. The unsuspended
button will allow administrators to activate the users account and the Delete button will delete the
account.
The session information for this user is displayed below the personal user information section. If
the user is currently online, then a message is displayed indicating that the user is online.
The Session information also displays the last five sessions for the user. If the user is online,
then it displays a Logout button next to the session that is currently open. The administrators
1
can logout the user by pressing the logout button.
Finally, the Accounting Details section displays the summary of the accounting information over
the past seven days for the user. The table displays the total session, usage time and bandwidth
usage for the users for each day of the week.
24
The information listed on the User Details page helps customer services reps to diagnose user
problems and analyze the overall usage patterns for the users.
Edit User
To edit users information, click the Edit button on the User Details page. The administrators are
not allowed to change the username for the user.
Note: If the administrators account is configured to view passwords, then all passwords will be
displayed in plain text.
User Accounting
Clicking on the Accounting button displays the accounting history for that user. Each entry in the
table indicates a user session with session start time, duration, MAC address, Location, Upload
bandwidth, Download bandwidth and reason for session termination. The MAC address listed is
the MAC address of the users machine, while the Location column displays the location from
where the user initiated the session.
25
The table below provides the explanation for the End Reason column:
End Reason
Lost Carrier
User Logout
Force Terminate
Idle-Timeout
NAS Reboot
Description
The users machine was shutdown or taken
away from the Wi-Fi zone without explicitly
logging out
The user logged out using logout button
The gateway forcibly terminated users session
after the threshold for a particular parameter was
exceeded. For example: Session-Timeout
User session was idle for time longer than the
threshold configured
The gateway was rebooted
26
27
Next, click on the bottom Add New button. A popup window will appear with all the vendorspecific attributes listed in the drop-down list. Select the appropriate attributes and enter its value
in the text field. To add another attribute value, select a new entry from the drop-down list and
enter the appropriate value. Click on the Close button once you are done entering values. The
RADIUS page will update automatically and will display the newly added attributes.
Note: All the common user attributes should be moved to users group. Only user-specific attribute
values should be defined here.
Suspend User
Administrators have the option to discontinue service for a particular user by suspending her
account. WiFiLAN preserves all the information (including accounting records) of the user during
the suspension. Thus the users state is restored back once the user account is unsuspended.
Administrators can suspend RADIUS accounts for variety of reasons. For example, if the
administrator detects that a particular user is misusing the network resources or using his account
for fraudulent activity, the administrator can prevent the user from using the network by
suspending the account. In some cases, the account may be suspended automatically. For
example, if the billing engine detects that the users credit card is expired and it is unable to
charge the user for the monthly dues, then the billing engine may suspend the account
temporarily until a valid credit card become available. The administrator can control the automatic
suspension by configuring the billing cycle appropriately.
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Unsuspend User
The administrator can unsuspend the user by clicking the Unsuspend button on the User Details
page. The Unsuspend button is only displayed for suspended users. WiFiLAN restores back the
users state and moves the user into active state. Once active, the RADIUS server can process
the authentication request from the user and thus allow access to network resources.
Delete User
If a particular user account is no longer needed, then administrators can chose to purge the user
from the system. All the users data (including the accounting records) will be lost after the
deletion. Please note that only suspended users can be deleted.
Note: WiFiLAN wont be able to restore any user information once the user is deleted.
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Radius Groups
Radius group is a logical entity to represent a collection of users or devices (gateways) that have
common characteristics. The users or gateways defined within a particular group share the
RADIUS attributes of that group. This minimizes the task of defining attributes for each individual
user or device, instead the administrator can define attributes for the group and all users or
devices within that group will automatically inherit those attributes. Administrators can also define
the authentication protocol that the RADIUS server will use for authenticating users or devices
within a group.
New Group
To define a new group, click on the New Group tab. The Group Name field is required and should
be unique. The group name should also not have any spaces. Select the type of the group and
the location (if any) associated with the group.
Note: Avoid using white spaces in the group name. Instead use _ to separate two words in the
group name.
List Groups
To view all the groups defined in the system, click on List Groups tab. The groups are listed in
alphabetical order with the device groups on the top. The table also displays the list of active and
suspended users within the group.
To sort the list based on particular field, click on the underlined column. First click will sort the list
in ascending order; the following click will sort the list in descending order.
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Note: If a group is associated with a location, then it is a good idea to have some naming
convention for the group name. This helps in easily identifying the group while selecting it on
other screens.
So, instead of using just the site name (eastcondo), we can use state_sitename or
state_city_sitename to easily identify the group
Edit Group
To edit the group, click on the group name is the List Group table and make appropriate changes.
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Delete Group
To delete a particular group, click the Delete button on the Edit Group tab. Please note that all the
users belonging to the group will become groupless or orphaned and the administrators will
have manually move these users from the orphaned group to the new group. It is generally not
advisable to delete a group once users or devices are assigned to it.
Gateway
The gateway submenu allows administrators to manage the RADIUS configuration for wireless
gateways installed in the Wi-Fi network. These gateways are responsible for controlling the traffic
between internal machines and the Internet. Besides acting as a gatekeeper, these devices may
also function as an access point, DHCP server and firewall. Most of these gateways have
redirection feature whereby unauthenticated clients are redirected to a login page. Typically,
these gateways are linked with access points using RF links or wired connections to cover a large
area.
List Gateways
To list the configured gateways, click on the Gateway submenu and then on the List Gateway tab.
The gateway devices are listed in alphabetical order along with its IP address and location. You
can click on the gateway name to view the RADIUS configuration for that gateway.
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To sort the list, click on the column header. The list will be sorted in ascending and descending
order on successive clicks.
New Gateway
To configure the RADIUS parameters for a new gateway device, click on the New Gateway tab. It
displays a form that collects all the information required configuring and authenticating a remote
gateway device.
Device Password *
Description
The short name for the gateway
The username that should be used to authenticate the
gateway. The same username should be entered in the
gateway configuration using its admin pages. This
feature is not available for all gateways. Please refer to
your gateway documentation for more information.
The password that is used to authenticate the gateway.
The same password should be entered in the gateway
configuration using its admin pages.
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IP Address *
Secret *
Device Group
Device Type
MAC Address
Description
Location
* These parameters should match the ones specified in the gateways admin page.
Advanced gateways like Colubris, retrieve their initialization parameters from the RADIUS server.
These gateways periodically send RADIUS authentication request to the server and RADIUS
server responds back with initialization parameters. You need to enter the Device UserName and
Password for such gateways.
WiFiLAN automatically creates a Network device entry when you add a new gateway. The
Network entry contains monitoring information along with other technical details of the device. For
more information on Network device, please refer to the Network section.
Edit Gateway
To edit the existing configuration for a gateway device, click on the gateway name in the List
Gateway table. If your gateway is configured for RADIUS authentication, they you need to enter
the Device UserName and DevicePassword fields. Please note that the Device UserName should
be unique for each gateway. WiFiLAN will prompt an error if you enter a duplicate Device
UserName.
Note: You can use the gateway serial number as the Device UserName.
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The vendor-specific attributes are different for each gateway. Administrators need to select the
right vendor using the Change Vendor button. The list of commonly used vendor-specific
attributes is displayed. Some attributes can be defined multiple times. The default operator (e.g.
+=) is automatically selected for each attribute.
Delete Gateway
To delete a gateway configuration, click the Delete button and confirm the deletion.
Note: Deleting a gateway will also delete the network device entry. All the network device data
(monitoring, network configuration, installation, etc) for the device will be deleted. Additionally, all
the data for attached devices (sub-devices) will be deleted too. Please exercise caution while
deleting a gateway.
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AutoLogin
AutoLogin section manages MAC address authentication for the RADIUS server. Normal login
mechanism requires the user to enter username and password in a login form to gain access to
network resources like Internet. In case of MAC address authentication, the wireless gateway
detects when the users computer with a given MAC address is switched on and automatically
performs the authentication for the user. The user doesnt have to remember username and
password and normally gets a perception that his computer is always logged on.
Although many wireless gateway support MAC address authentication, not all of them support
RADIUS based MAC address authentication. Some of them allow administrators to specify MAC
addresses within the gateway configuration. In such cases, AutoLogin feature may not be used.
However, many advanced gateways do send a RADIUS authentication request when they detect
a predefined MAC address and request RADIUS authentication.
List AutoLogins
To view all the AutoLogins defined in the system, click on the List AutoLogins tab. Each
AutoLogins MAC address, a friendly name and the group name are listed in a tabular format. You
can also search for particular AutoLogin entry using the search section. The search fields can
accept partial MAC address entries, in which case all entries containing the partial address will be
returned.
New AutoLogin
To add a new AutoLogin entry, click the New AutoLogin tab and enter the details for the
AutoLogin entry. Although the Friendly Name is not a required field, it is a good idea to enter a
friendly name for the entry to easily search for it in the future.
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Each AutoLogin entry can be associated with one or more gateway (devices). The MAC address
authentication for an AutoLogin will only work on gateways that are associated with the AutoLogin
entry. To enable free roaming for a particular MAC address, you need to associate its AutoLogin
entry with all the devices.
Edit AutoLogin
To edit an AutoLogin entry, click the MAC address in the AutoLogin list. Note that you cant
change the MAC address once it is created. If you need to change the MAC address then you will
have to delete and add the entry again.
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Accounting
Since AutoLogins are treated just like normal RADIUS users, the RADIUS server collects
accounting data for each MAC address session. To view the accounting history for a particular
MAC address, click on the Accounting button on the Edit AutoLogin page.
The accounting records are displayed in reverse chronological order starting with the most
current session. The table also displays the total duration, internal IP address, location,
bandwidth usage and reason for session termination for each session. If they are more than 50
entries, click on the Next Page link to view the subsequent pages.
Delete AutoLogin
To delete an AutoLogin entry, click on the Delete button on Edit AutoLogin page. Confirm the
deletion.
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Deleting AutoLogin entry will delete all accounting information for the particular MAC address.
Locations
Each Wi-Fi network or hotspot is installed at a particular location. WiFiLAN allows you to manage
the list of locations. For hotspot providers having nationwide installations, location list help their
administrators to keep track of their hotspots, users and network infrastructure. The locationbased reports and statistics help administrators and managers understand the customer
demographics and trends based on a geographical area.
New Location
To create a new location entry, click on the New Location tab. Fill or select the necessary fields
and click Create Location. You can also enter the Latitude and Longitude for that location.
You need to select a city-state combination while create a new location. If a particular city-state
combination doesnt exist in the list, you can click on the New button to create a new combination.
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List Locations
To view all the locations defined in the system, click on the List Location tab. All the locations are
displayed in alphabetical order. You can sort the list by clicking on the underlined table headers.
The export button allows administrators to export the list of locations in an Excel format. The list
can be easily uploaded into Wi-Fi finder websites such as Jwire.
Edit Location
Click on the name of the location to edit a given location.
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Delete Location
To delete a location, click the Delete button on the Edit Location page. Click on the Delete
Location button to confirm your action.
User Approvals
A typical user registration is a one-step process. The user visits a registration page, fills a form
along with his credit card information and submits it. If the registration succeeds, then the users
account is created in the RADIUS database and the user can begin using the Internet service.
However, sometime wireless ISPs or network operators may have to introduce a two-step user
registration process. For example, a university may decide to provide Internet service free to its
students but charge the visitors who visit the campus. Since student population is dynamic and
every student may not need access, the network operator can allow free registration for students
and paid for visitors. The student registration has to be approved before the account becomes
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active. The approval similar process can be used by wireless ISPs while signup bulk deals with
apartment properties or hotels.
In approval process, the registration goes to the administrator for approval before the account
becomes active. The administrator can approve or deny the registration. The denied users are
purged from the database using the Purge Denied feature.
List Approvals
All users submitted for approval are displayed under List Approval page. To view this page click
on RADIUS -> Approval menu. The table displays the list of all pending approvals. Each entry
consists of approve/deny actions radio buttons, Name of the user, location, apt number (if
applicable) and signup date.
Administrators can select approve or deny action for each entry and then hit submit. All approved
users will be activated in the system and denied users will be suspended. The administrator can
navigate to the Purge Denied tab to clean the denied users.
The search section allows administrators to search for a particular user based on user attributes
or signup location.
To view the detail information about the user, click on the users name.
Purge Denied
Administrators can delete / purge all denied users using the Purge denied page. To purge all
users in the list, check the box in the Purge column header or check the individual checkbox to
purge a specific user.
All user information is lost once the account is purged.
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Importing Users
To import users, click on the Import Users tab in the Users section. Select the name of the group
in which you need to import the users. Then select the format of the imported file. Currently,
WiFiLAN supports Airpath CSV format.
After selecting the above fields, the administrators need to select whether the users should be
imported as active or suspended users. By default, the import process assumes that the users
are active. If the Update Duplicate option is checked, then the import process will update the data
for existing users with the newly imported data.
Finally, the last field allows administrators to select the CSV file from the local computer. Click the
Browse button to select the appropriate filename and then press the Import Data button.
After the import process finishes execution, it will print the total number of users imported
successfully. If the process encounters errors while importing a particular user record, then it will
list the user in the failed list and continue execution. The administrator can take appropriate
action (manually edit or add) for the failed imports.
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Exporting Users
WiFiLAN allows administrators to export existing users in a CSV (Comma Separated Values)
format. The exported file can be opened in Excel and further converted to other format.
To export the existing users (active as well as suspended), Click on the Export button on the List
Users tab. Confirm the export action by clicking on the Export Users button. The browser will
prompt you the either open or save the CSV file. Choose appropriate action.
To export a subset of user list, first perform the user search and then click on the export button.
The export feature will automatically export only those users that match the given criteria.
Following fields are exported in the CSV file:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Full name
Email
Address
City
State
Zipcode
Country
Home Phone
Work Phone
Cell Phone
Username
Password
Signup Date
Location
User Group
Status
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Sub Menu
Admin
Function
Configure monitoring, alerts and network management services
Devices
Status
Manage
Displays network monitoring status and traps sent from the device
Manage remote network devices from a centralized location
Install
Inventory
Content Filter
Reports
Admin
The Admin section allows administer to configure parameters for the monitoring server, specify
the actions to execute when an alert is received and configure the default values for network
devices.
Administer Monitoring
To configure the parameters for monitoring server, click on the Monitoring tab in the Admin
submenu. The administrators can define the default parameters that will be used by the
monitoring server. One can define the same set of parameters in the device section. However, if
they are not defined for a particular device, then the monitoring server will use the ones defined in
this section.
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Monitoring Interval
Notify Frequency
Description
Select the default protocol to be used for monitoring. The
monitoring server can use Ping (ICMP), HTTP or SNMP to
determine the status of a device.
The default interval between two consecutive monitors. To set
custom interval, enter a number greater than 10 in the Custom
Interval field
List of email addresses (comma separated) to which a notification
email will be sent if a device is down or comes back up.
Number of successive failures before sending DOWN notifications.
Generally you need to set this parameter to 2 or more to avoid false
positive reports.
Number of times the notifications should be sent. Values are:
1. Notify one time
2. Notify multiple times (sent for every monitor event)
3. Do not notify
* This parameter is used to compensate for false positive notifications, which may arise due
to temporary network glitches.
Manage Alerts
Many gateways send SNMP traps to broadcast the occurrence of interesting events such as
device reboot, lost authentication, hacker attacks, configuration changes, etc. WiFiLANs alert
manager server is responsible for handling these alerts and processing them based on the rules
defined. In most cases, an email alert is sent to administrators whose email addresses are listed
in this section. To configure the notification emails, enter the list of email addresses (comma
separated) in the Alert configuration section.
Different devices send different types of traps. To configure traps for a particular device type,
select the device type in the Configure Traps section. All the listed traps for that device type will
be listed in the table below. First select all the traps that you would like to enable and click the
Update button. The same screen will reappear and the trap actions will be enabled. Now check
the appropriate actions for each enabled trap and hit Update button again.
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The Log trap action will log the trap in a database. These traps can be viewed by clicking on the
Alerts tab under Status submenu. The Send Alert action will send a notification to the configured
email addresses.
Note: The Run Script action is currently disabled. It will be enabled in the future versions of
WiFiLAN.
Device Defaults
Device Management section allows administrators to store several network related parameters in
a common repository. Many large hotspot providers tend to standardize their network
configurations so that they are easy to manage and deploy. To lessen the burden of entering
repetitive values in device configuration, WiFiLAN provides an option to specify the standard
network parameter once and reuse them when creating a new device entry. The Device Default
section allows administrators to define these standard values.
For more information on using the values defined in this section, please refer to Device Wizard
under Device Management.
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Device Management
The Device Management section allows administrators to maintain network device information
and configure their devices for monitoring. This section acts as a central repository of information
for network managers, technicians and administrators.
Before we dwell into this section, lets understand a typical Wi-Fi network topology to gain better
understanding of the various terms involved in this section.
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A non-trivial Wi-Fi installation consist of a wireless gateway and one or more access points, each
providing Wi-Fi coverage in a specific area. The wireless gateway acts as a bridge, connecting
the outside Internet or Intranet with the Wi-Fi network. Depending on the requirements, it may
also provide other network services such as DHCP, DNS, firewall, VPN client, RADIUS client,
port forwarding, etc. The wireless gateway is connected to other wireless access points (AP) via
a Radio Frequency (RF) link or a CAT5 connection. Each access point is capable of providing
signal coverage to a specific area. The gateway may also function as an access point. Network
installers may also install antennas to boost the signal or change the shape of the coverage area.
The client devices (laptops, PDAs, Tablet PCs, etc) connect to the access points to gain access
to network resources such as the Internet. The access points forward the clients request to the
gateway, which acts as a gatekeeper to the outside world.
This network topology allows network managers to scale their Wi-Fi networks to cover a large
area. In many cases, antennas are also used to expand the coverage area or concentrate the
signal in one particular direction.
The Device Management section allows network administrators to maintain data for both large,
complex Wi-Fi networks like the ones installed in RV Parks, apartments, metros, etc and smaller
ones like those installed in coffee shops, restaurants and even homes.
New Device
To create a new device entry, click on the New Device tab in the Devices submenu. A form with
several different sections appears on the screen. Each section captures specific attributes of the
device or the Wi-Fi network.
General Information
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This section captures general information related to the device such as IP address, serial
number, device type, location, etc. All fields except SSID are mandatory. If a particular type of
device is not present in the drop-down list, then click on the New button to add the one needed.
Its a good idea to put the vendor name followed by the model of the device.
Description
A friendly name for the device
The WAN address of the device. The monitoring server
uses this IP address to check the status of the device
The serial number listed on the back of the installed
device. The number is unique for a vendor
The MAC address of the Internet port of the device
The SSID configured in the Wi-Fi device
Select one of the predefined type of the device
Select the location where the device is installed from the
drop-down list
RADIUS Information
This section captures the RADIUS configuration for the gateway device. This same information
can be entered in the RADIUS -> Gateway configuration. If administrator enters information in
this section, then a corresponding RADIUS gateway entry will be created for this device. The
RADIUS gateway entry is required for authenticating clients from the gateway.
Parameter
Device
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UserName
Device
Password
Secret
Device Group
Description
Monitoring Information
The information defined here is used by Wifi-soft Monitoring Server to periodically check the
status of the device. All the parameters are active only if the Is Monitored checkbox is checked.
The information defined here overrides the default parameters defined in the Administer
Monitoring section as explained in the previous section. However, the list of email addresses
defined in this section will be appended to the one defined in the Administer Monitoring section.
This allows network administrators to create a hierarchy of email notifications in which email
related to a specific device are delivered to only concerned people, while the people in NOC will
get notifications from all devices.
Administrators can also set monitoring server to monitor the broadband modem separately. In
most hotspot installations, the modem and wireless router/gateway are separate and each of
them may fail separately. If the public IP of the modem is separate from the gateway/router IP,
then enter the IP address in Modem IP field. Else, the monitoring server will assume that the
Modem IP is same as the gateway IP.
Monitoring
Interval
Monitor Modem
Modem IP
Modem Monitory
Description
If checked, the Monitoring Server will monitor this device
at periodic interval
The type of protocol to be used for monitoring. The
monitoring server supports ping (ICMP), HTTP and
SNMP.
The time interval between two consecutive monitoring
cycles. The user can choose a custom interval or 10
minutes or more by entering a number in the Custom
Interval field.
If checked, monitoring server will monitor the broadband
modem connected to the gateway
The public IP address of the modem if it is different from
the gateway IP
The protocol used for monitoring modem.
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Type
Notify Enabled
Notify After
Email
Notifications
Network Information
The network information section allows administrators to capture various network-related
parameters for a device such as ISP information, internal LAN IP address, NAT and DHCP
information, etc. All the fields in this section are optional.
Lan IP
Wlan Gateway
NAT Enabled
DHCP Enabled
Description
The Name of the Internet Service Provider (ISP)
The contact number for ISP
Customer support email address for the ISP
The contract number (if any) for the ISP
The IP address of the gateway. This IP address is useful
when the gateway itself is installed on a NATed IP
address behind a router.
The LAN side IP address of the gateway. This IP address
will be visible from the Wireless LAN side.
Indicates whether NAT (Network Address Translation) is
enabled on the gateway
Indicates whether DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol)
is enabled on the gateway
Authentication Information
This section stores the authentication related data for the device. If the administrators account is
configured to view passwords, then all the passwords will be displayed in clear text, else they will
be encrypted. The community name field is required if the monitoring type is set to SNMP.
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Readonly Name
PPPoE
Username
PPPoE Password
Description
The username for access the admin pages of the device
The password for admin pages
The SNMP community name (if supported) for the device.
This field is required if the monitor type is set to SNMP. It
is also used to manage the device remotely using SNMP
MIBs.
The SNMP readonly community for the device
If the device is configured for PPP(Point to Point Protocol)
over Ethernet, then enter the username in this field
The password for PPPoE login.
Miscellaneous Information
This section collects miscellaneous information such as install date, firmware version, notes, etc
for the device. All fields are optional.
Description
The date on which the device was installed. Click on the
calendar icon to select the date.
The current firmware version
Administrators can enter any custom notes related to the
device in this field
Indicates whether the users on this device get free or paid
access
The latitude where the device is installed
The longitude where the device is installed
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List Devices
To view all network devices in the system, click on the List Device tab. The table displays device
name in alphabetical order along with its IP address, device type and the monitoring state.
Administrators can view the details for a particular device by clicking on the name of the device.
As described in the earlier section, a device or gateway can be associated with multiple access
points or attached subdevices. If a device is configured with attached subdevices, then the device
entry has a + or sign next to their entry in device list. On clicking on the + sign, a list of attached
subdevices will be displayed below the device name. To collapse the device tree, click on the
sign.
Administrators can also export the device list in a CSV format by clicking on the Export button.
The export feature is described in detail in the Export Devices section.
The list can be sorted according to a particular field by clicking on the underlined table header.
Administrator can click on the name of the device to edit a particular device or subdevice entry.
Edit Device
To edit device information, click on the device name in the List Devices section. A separate tab is
displayed for each section. The administrator can navigate through the tabs to edit the necessary
information and then click Edit Device button.
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Additionally, the Edit Device page also lists two sections to manage the installation and site
information associated with the device. Typically, the network installers are responsible for filling
the install information, which is later merged into the device information. To read more about this
feature, please refer to the Installation Management section in the document.
Similarly, the Site tab displays the site related information, including site maps, associated with a
device.
In short, the Edit Device page provides administrators with a single, unified view of all the data
associated with a device.
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Add Sub-Device
This tab allows administrators to add new sub-devices (attached access points) to the network
configuration. Each sub-devices needs to be associated with a device (gateway) and can be
monitored along with the device. The Monitoring Server tunnels through the device to check the
status of these attached devices. This feature helps administrators to get a complete, up-to-date
status of their network, and thus ensure the reliability of their network.
To add a new sub-device, click on the New SubDevice tab in the Devices submenu. A form with
multiple sections will be displayed.
Most parameters are similar to those in the device tab. Some of the different ones are as follows:
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Parameter
Parent Device
Internal IP
Section
Device
Device
Sub-Device Type
Device
Tunneling Port
Monitoring
Tunneling Protocol
Internal Location
Monitoring
Miscellaneous
Description
The parent device (gateway) for this sub-device.
The internal NATed IP of the device
E.g. 192.168.1.102
The type of sub-device. Click on the New button to
create a new sub-device type
The tunneled port number that is configured in the port
forwarding section of the gateway. See Tunneling
section below
The protocol to use for tunneling the monitoring request
The internal location where the sub-device is installed.
E.g. On Northeast light pole.
Edit Subdevice
To edit a subdevice, you need to first expand the device entry and then click on the
corresponding subdevice name. All the subdevice entries are displayed in a tabbed form. Click on
the particular tab, edit the corresponding entry and click the submit button.
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Deleting Subdevice
To delete a subdevice entry, click on the Delete button on the edit subdevice page. Please note
that all subdevice information including monitoring records will be permanently lost.
Network Status
The Network Status page displays the status report of all monitored devices in a tabular format.
To view Network Status, click on the Status submenu and then on the Network Status tab. A table
listing all the monitored devices is displayed on the page. The table uses a color-coding scheme
to identify the status of each device. Each device entry can be expanded to view the status of
each attached sub-device. WiFiLAN will automatically expand a device entry if it detects one or
more sub-devices have failed monitoring.
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Each table entry displays the name of the monitored device, the location, IP address, current
status, last monitored time and the heartbeat time (if supported) for the device. Based on the
current status of the device, the list highlighted in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green or White. The
description for the color-coding is as follows:
Color
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
White
Description
The device is down since it is unreachable
from the monitoring server
The modem is reachable, but the device
may be down or not functional
The device was temporarily down in the last
24 hours, but is UP and reachable from the
monitoring server
The device is UP and reachable
The device is not monitored
The monitoring history for a particular device can be viewed by clicking on the current status of
the device UP or DOWN. Administrators can also view the administration page for the gateway
in a separate browser window by clicking on the IP address for the device. For some gateways,
WiFiLAN will automatically pass the username and password (configured in the Authentication
Section) to the URL thus allowing administrators to directly log into the administration pages.
For attached devices, the URL for accessing administration page is automatically constructed
using the tunneling port. This allows administrators to click on the IP address field for the subdevice and directly access the administrative pages. Based on the requirements, the
administrator can change the firmware parameters on these pages.
Administrators can also search for device status based on the search criteria defined in the
search box.
Monitoring Details
To view the monitoring details for a device, click on the current status of the device on the Status
page. A table displaying the status history over past 24 hours is displayed. This table helps the
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administrator to determine the exact time when the device failed to respond to monitoring
request.
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Network Alerts
Some advanced gateways have a feature to track interesting events and send SNMP traps to a
remote server. For example, a gateway may send an alert to the administrator if it detects a
change in its configuration file or if the administrative login fails consecutively. So, if a malicious
user is trying to again access to the gateway or is trying to change the configuration file, the
administrators will be notified immediately. This feature helps administrators ensure that all their
remote devices are operating properly and the reliability of the network is maintained.
WiFiLAN Alert Manager keeps track of all the alerts received from the remote devices. It can
either log them in a database and/or notify administrators via email. The administrators can view
the alert history on the List Traps page. To view the page, click on the Status submenu and then
on the List Traps tab. The alerts are listed in reverse chronological order. A short description
indicates the reason why the alert was generated.
Note: WiFiLAN cleans the old alerts periodically. All alerts older than 3 months will be removed
from the system.
IP change management
Some customers choose to install their Wi-Fi networks on a dynamic IP address to save
operational cost of their networks. Dynamic IP addresses are cheaper than static IP addresses.
However, these networks run into trouble when the IP address changes since the RADIUS server
fails to authenticate users from that gateway unless the gateway configuration is updated with the
new IP address.
The IP change management feature in WiFiLAN helps administrators to use dynamic IP
addresses on their networks without having to worry about changing the RADIUS and other
configurations when the IP address changes. WiFiLAN automatically detects the IP change and
makes the necessary configuration changes so that the downtime for network is avoided. Please
note that this feature is not supported by all gateways. Please contact our technical support
to find out whether your wireless gateway supports this feature.
Additionally, WiFiLAN also can detect a new device on the network using SNMP. WiFiLAN sends
an email notification to the administrator when it detects a new device. The administrator can
quickly configure the new device and WiFiLAN, and make the device operational within minutes.
This feature is especially important when administrators need to keep track of several distributed
installations and reduce the installation time.
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Install Management
A non-trivial Wi-Fi installation generates a sizable amount of installation data such as operating
channel for AP, SSID, internal IP for an AP, MAC address, operating mode, antenna type,
direction, operating frequency band, etc. All this information becomes useful when a customer
calls with a problem or when a maintenance representative needs to service the installation. If the
Wi-Fi installations are remote and a technical person is not present on site, then this kind of
information hard to capture after the network is installed and operational. The best time to capture
this information is during the installation and configuration time, when the field reps can quickly fill
the technical data after the installation is done.
WiFiLAN provides an interface to easily capture this information, manage it and then
integrate/merge it with rest of the data for the Wi-Fi network. This feature streamlines the
installation process and captures the necessary network information in one central repository. It is
particularly effective if the network managers introduce the install hardware and log data process
to their install teams. This will ensure that all the field data is captured in a timely manner thus
saving time and cost when the networks are maintained or a customer service calls are handled.
Description
The name of the device or subdevice
The MAC address of the device/sub-device
The username for admin pages
The password for admin pages
Copyright 2005 Wifi-soft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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Channel
Antenna Type
Antenna Direction
SSID
Signal Strength
Band Frequency
Lightening Protector
Client Bridge Device
Amplifier Power
Rating
Config File
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To merge the install information with existing device data, the administrators can click on the M
icon next to the device name. A dialog box prompts the administrators to select the device/subdevice for merging the information. On confirming the dialog box, the install information will get
associated with the device data and will get displayed in the Install tab on Edit Device/Sub-Device
page.
Site Management
WiFiLAN helps administrators manage the site related information like site maps and contact
details of the site owner and manager. This information becomes available in the Site tab of the
device information.
To add new site details, click on the New Site tab in Install submenu and fill the appropriate
details. Administrators can enter URLs for physical and layout maps of the site. These maps can
help customer service personnel understand layout of large site to resolve coverage issues or
diagnose other RF related issues.
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Note: The map image files will have to be stored at a publicly accessible address. Administrators
can choose to upload these files on Wifi-softs FTP server from where they can be easily
accessed.
List Sites
To view the site list, click on the List Sites tab after clicking the install submenu. The table
contains all the sites listed in alphabetical order. If administrators have configured the URLs for
the site maps, then users can view the site maps by clicking on the Display Map link for the
respective maps.
The list can be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the underlined column
name.
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Note: It is a good idea to mark the places where you have installed access points, antenna and
other network devices. This information is valuable to the network team in diagnosing RF
problems and connectivity issues.
Inventory Management
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The inventory-tracking feature in WiFiLAN allows administrators to maintain the list of inventory
items (gateways, access points, antenna, power-over-ethernet adapter, hub, switches, etc) that
are required for Wi-Fi installations. The list can be exported so that other applications can use the
data for accounting or reporting purpose.
Date Ordered
Date Received
Date Installed
Date Retired
Description
The name of the inventory item
Type of inventory E.g. Access point, Antenna
Serial number (if any) of the item
Place where the item is currently present
Total cost of the item
The current state of the item:
Ordered
Shipped
Instock
Installed
Damaged
Retired
Date when the item was ordered
Date when the item was received from the supplier
Date when the item was installed in the field
Date when the item was retired or damaged
Note: To select the dates, you can click on the calendar icon next to the text field and select the
necessary date
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Content Filtering
Wifi-softs Content Filtering solution allows customers to control the content that gets viewed on
their hotspots. This solution is particularly attractive to customers who provide Internet services in
public places such as cafes, restaurants, libraries, train stops, parks, etc. The content filtering
solution blocks unwanted sites from reaching the users computer by redirect the browser to a
warning page whenever the user tries to access the blocked content.
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The diagram below highlights the working of the Content Filtering solution.
Whenever a Wi-Fi user tries to access any blocked content such as www.playboy.com from his
browser, the request is intercepted by the wireless gateway and forwarded to the Content Filter
server for verification. The Content Filter server maintains an updated list of blocked website in its
cache. Each time a verification request is received by the server, it compares the URL with the list
of blocked URLs. If a match is found, then it sends an access denied response back to the
gateway along with a URL of redirect server (redirect.wifi-soft.com). The redirect web server will
display a warning or custom message to the user.
On the other hand, if the Content Filter doesnt find any match for the requested URL
(www.yahoo.com), it sends an access granted response to the gateway. The gateway then allows
the browser request to go through and access the requested URL over the Internet.
Adding Domains
The blocked URLs maintained in the Content Filter server are categorized based on domains.
Each domain contains URLs that are similar in nature. E.g. Violence.
The administrators can configure the domains that need to be blocked by checking the
appropriate checkbox in the Manage Domains tab. The changes will take effect after the Content
Filter server reloads the blocked URL list from our commercial vendor.
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Note: The blocked URL list is updated twice a week. So, any changes to this configure will take
effect after a few days. If the customer wishes to activate their changes before the scheduled
update, then he needs to contact our technical support representative.
Managing Sites
Sometimes the content filter server may block sites that the customer feels are appropriate for
their users to view. On the other hand, it may be possible that the content filter is not blocking
sites that the customer feels are inappropriate for their users. The Manage Site feature allows
administrators to specify extra sites to block or unblock certain set of sites.
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To add new sites to the list of blocked site, add the complete URL to the text box next to the
Block Site button and click the button. The newly added list is listed in the Extra Blocked Sites
table. Similarly to unblock a particular site, add the complete URL for that site to the text field next
to Unblock Site button. The newly added entry will be displayed in the Unblocked Sites table.
To remove the entries for the respective tables, select the required entries and then click the
Delete button.
Note: Administrators need to enter complete URLs for the blocked or unblocked sites. The
Content Filter server will perform an exact match while processing these URLs. If administrators
want to block/unblock a list of sites from a particular domain, then they need to enter the domain
name only. E.g. playboy.com will block/unblock all sites contains playboy.com in their URL.
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Sub Menu
Admin
FAQ
K-Base
Function
Allows an administrator to configure various features in this
section
Manages problem tickets submitted by the endusers. Provides
ability to respond to them using email
Allows an administrator to send mass emails to the end users.
Also manages email templates
Manages Frequently Asked Questions
Provides ability to add entries and search a knowledgebase
Reports
Tickets
Emails
Problem Tickets
WiFiLAN provides set of tools to capture and manage the problem tickets submitted by the end
users. The administrators can build custom web pages to capture the problem ticket information
from the end user and then use WiFiLAN web integration module to log these tickets in
WiFiLANs problem ticket database. Using WiFiLAN administrators can assign these tickets to
support technicians, track their progress, resolve the issues and generate reports for the
management.
Ticket Configuration
After the custom web page is integrated with WiFiLAN, the administrators need to configure the
problem ticket section in WiFiLAN by clicking on the Admin submenu and then on the Ticket
Config tab.
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CC Addresses
SMTP Server Name
Send Confirmation
Confirmation
Template
Description
If non-empty, then the administrators will receive
notification about a new problem ticket from this address
The list of comma-separated email addresses to which
notification is sent whenever the end user submits a new
problem ticket
The CC address for notification emails
The name of the SMTP server used to send notification
emails. If empty, Wifi-softs SMTP server will be used
Indicates whether a confirmation email should be sent to
the end user indicating that ticket was received.
The template used to send the confirmation email to the
end user.
New Ticket
Usually the end users using Wi-Fi services submit new problem tickets by filling a form on
customers web page. However, WiFiLAN administrators or customer services representatives
can also create new problem tickets within WiFiLAN. This feature is useful to capture customers
problem in WiFiLAN when the end user calls customer service center with a problem.
To create a new problem ticket, click on the Tickets submenu and then click on the New Ticket
tab. A form will be displayed that collects various details about the problem.
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Priority
Category
Location
Assign To
Fix By Date
Description
Note
Description
One line summary of the problem
The name of the end user reporting the problem
The email address of the originator (end user). This
email address will be used to send response to problem
ticket
The priority level for the ticket
The category of the ticket. Administrators can either
select existing category or create a new one by using the
New button.
The location from where the problem is reported
The agent who will handle the problem ticket.
Administrators can assign a problem ticket based on the
expertise or current load of the agent
Date by which the problem should be fixed
Long description about the problem
Additional note for the problem.
Note: The refresh button is used to refresh the category list when a new category is added. All the
form data will be lost when the form is refreshed. So it is a good idea to create a new category
before filling the form
List Tickets
To view all the tickets submitted in WiFiLAN, click on the List Tickets tab. The tickets are listed in
reverse chronological order. Each problem ticket is automatically given a unique identifier. The
administrator can click on the ticket identifier to view the details of given ticket.
Administrators can also search for tickets using various search criteria defined in the Ticket
Search section.
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Administrators can sort the list in ascending or descending order by clicking on the underlined
table header.
Ticket Summary
The ticket summary page provides an overview of the tickets present in WiFiLAN. The summary
table displays total number of tickets assigned to various agent based on the current state of the
ticket.
Ticket State
New
Assigned
Resolved
Closed
Delayed
Description
The ticket was newly created and not assigned to
any agent
The ticket was assigned to an agent by the
administrator
The agent has take appropriate action and the end
users problem is fixed
The administrator/supervisor has verified that the
users problem is fixed and closed the ticket
The agent has not resolved the ticket on time. The
ticket is open past the fix by date.
Administrators can also perform a quick search for a given ticket based on the ticket id, status or
assigned agent. The results are displayed a tabular format just like the List Ticket section
explained in the previous section.
Ticket Details
To view details for a particular ticket, click on the ticket identifier (E.g. TUNG000006) on the
summary or list ticket tab. The details of the ticket are listed in a table as shown below:
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The administrator can edit or delete or send a response to the ticket by clicking on the
appropriate button.
Ticket Response
WiFiLAN allows agents to send email responses to the end users who have submitted a problem
ticket. To send a response, the agent needs to click on the Reply button on the Ticket Details tab.
An email form with end users email address is displayed to the agent.
The agent can draft a response and hit the Send Response button. Agents also have an option to
specify CC and BCC addresses so that they can copy the response to their supervisors if
necessary.
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Edit Ticket
To change the ticket data, click on the Edit Ticket button on the Ticket Details tab. The agent will
not be allowed to change the non-editable fields like Originator or Ticket Id. Other fields can be
edited as needed and the changes committed by clicking on the Edit Ticket button.
If the status of ticket is changed to Resolved or Closed, then WiFiLAN will force the agent to enter
the resolution text and select a resolution identifier. The resolution identifier is mostly used in
reports generation and to track the trends in resolving problems.. To add new resolution identifier,
click on the New button next to the drop-down list. Some of the common resolution identifiers are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Problem Fixed
Not reproducible
Insufficient information
Deferred
Email Response
A new note can be added to the problem ticket by clicking on the Add Note button. The agent can
also edit the existing note(s) if necessary.
Delete Ticket
To delete a ticket, click on the Delete button on the Ticket Details page. You will be asked to
confirm the deletion. Click on the Delete button again to permanently delete the ticket.
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Note: All information related to the ticket (including notes) will be lost once the ticket is deleted
View Notes
Notes allow agent and administrators to store snippets of information for a problem ticket. For
example if the agent deduces that the end user is experiencing a slow connection because of a
virus on the users machine, the agent can insert a small note for the problem ticket. If other
agent is assigned the problem ticket, then he can take the note into consideration while resolving
the customer issue
There is no limit on number of notes that can be added to a problem ticket. Each note can be
edited or deleted based on the need.
Edit Note
To edit a note, click on the <Edit> link at the bottom of the note section. Make necessary changes
and click Edit Note to save the changes. Similarly to delete a note, click on the <Delete> link.
Agent will be prompted to confirm the delete before deleting the note.
Customer Care
The Customer Care section of WiFiLAN allows administrators to send bulk emails to the end
users. The administrators can select users based on user group or a location. Additionally, this
section also allows administrators to create and manage email templates. The email templates
are pre-written email messages with placeholders that are sent to the subscribers as canned
messages. The email sender program will automatically substitute placeholders with customerspecific data before sending the email.
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wishes to send emails to all his subscribers, then he can leave both fields blanks and hit the
Select button.
Next, the administrator can further refine the user list by selecting the users from multiple
selection list. To select all users press Ctrl-A. Finally, the administrator needs to select the email
template that will contain the subject and body of the email.
An email form containing the pre-defined text is displayed to the administrator. The administrator
can customize/change the text in the email and add/remove email addresses as required. He also
needs to specify an appropriate From Address for the email. Once all these changes are made,
he can click on the Send Email button to dispatch the emails to the selected users.
WiFiLAN iterates through the individual email address and sends a separate email to each
selected user. All the placeholders in the email template are substituted with user-specific
attributes. For examples <<FullName>> will be substituted by Bill Gates.
Email Templates
Email template is a custom, cannel message that the administrator can create once and reuse
them. The template reduces the burden of typing a similar message every time and thus allows
the agent to handle busy load and save service time. An email template has few customizable
fields that vary based on the context. For example, the Firstname and Lastname are
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customizable fields. They need to be substituted with the correct value from the database before
the email is sent to the concerned party.
New Email Template
To create a new email template, click on the Emails submenu and then on the New Template tab.
Fill out the details in the template and save the template by clicking the Create Template button.
Each template can be associated with a particular category. To create a new category click on
the New button. Additionally, the template can also contains different substitution parameters that
can be replaced with actual values before the email is sent to the end user. These substitution
parameters are listed below:
Template Name
FullName
FirstName
LastName
UserName
Password
Email
DateTime
TotalAmount
VerifyCode
VerifyUrl
SiteName
ManagerName
ManagerPhone
Description
Full name of the user/subscriber
First name of the user
Last name of the user
The username (e.g. john@openhouse) of the user
Users password. Not a good idea to include
passwords in email template. Use caution.
Email address of the user
Date and time when the email was sent
The total amount charged to users credit card using
registration process
The verification code. Please refer to Email
Verification section for details
Verification URL. Used only when verifycode is not
present
The name of the site/location from where the user has
registered
The managers name listed under the site information
The managers phone number listed under site
information.
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Note: All the Placeholders are case-sensitive. Please make sure that you specify exact
parameter name inside << >>.
List Templates
To view all the templates defined in the system, click on the List Templates tab.
FAQ Management
WiFiLAN allows administrators to create and maintain a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
People from different departments can refer to these FAQs while carrying out their duties. For
example, the customer service representatives can use them to provide answers to common
customer issues. The installation team can refer to them while doing a new installation. Any new
employee can understand your internal processes or Wi-Fi concepts by reading through them.
In its future version, WiFiLAN will provide an interface that will allow website developers to fetch
these FAQs dynamically to construct public FAQ pages on the website or login portal pages.
New FAQ
To create a new FAQ, click on the FAQ submenu and then on the New FAQ tab. Enter relevant
data in the question and answer field and choose the correct category. Administrators can create
new categories by clicking the New button and entering the new category name. Make sure that
the Is Visible box is checked.
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List FAQs
To view all the defined FAQs, click on the List FAQ button. The FAQs are categorized based on
the category. Administrators can search for FAQ by specifying various search criteria in the FAQ
search section. To search using multiple texts fields, enter the text separated by white space. E.g.
Wi-Fi adapters
Edit FAQ
To edit a FAQ, click on the question listed on the List FAQ page. The administrator can make
necessary changes and save the FAQ by clicking on the Edit FAQ button.
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Administrators can delete the FAQ from the Edit page. To delete, click on the Delete button and
confirm the action.
Knowledgebase
The knowledgebase feature in WiFiLAN allows administrators to create and maintain a rich
repository of information that people in all departments can use as reference. Unlike FAQs, the
knowledgebase can store any kind of free-form text like articles, reports, procedures, information
snippets and binary attachments. It contains a full-text search engine that allows WiFiLAN users
to quickly locate the information they need. The results are ranked based on the relevance, with
the most relevant item on the top of the list. The future version of WiFiLAN will also integrate
problem tickets, FAQs and knowledgebase items to create a central content repository for the
company.
Knowledgebase is usually built over time as the content is accumulated from variety of sources. It
also requires commitment from companys employees to document any article of information so
that other team members can get benefited from it. However, once the knowledgebase is built, it
becomes a central place to find any information.
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To create a new topic, click on the New button next to the topic field. Enter the name of the topic
and select the parent topic from the drop-down list. The parent topics hierarchy is displayed using
the following notation:
Parent -> Child -> Grand Child
Search Knowledgebase
The Search K-Base tab provides an interface to search the knowledgebase using a text string.
Alternatively, administrators can also retrieve knowledgebase entries based on a particular topic.
The search string can contains multiple words separated by white space. The results of the
search are listed in descending order of relevance. The relevance (usually a decimal number)
indicates the relevance of the article with respect to the query. The higher the number greater is
the relevance of the document to the query.
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Note: The relevance number doesnt have a range and varies based on number of items in the
knowledgebase, search text and other internal parameters. A decimal number greater than one is
normal behavior.
Entry Description
One can view the knowledgebase entry by clicking on the Summary column in result table. If the
knowledgebase search is performed based on topic, then the Score or Relevance entry is not
applicable (N/A), else the score indicates the relevance of the topic for that query.
One can change the description of the item by clicking on the Edit button. Additional attachment
can be added using the New button in the Attachment section and existing ones can be deleted
or saved to the disk using the Delete or Save button.
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Adding attachments
Administrators can add any type of attachment to a knowledgebase entry. Each entry can contain
zero or more attachments. To add an attachment click on the Add button next to Attachment
section on the entry description page. Upload the required file using the form shown below.
The attachments can be viewed or removed from the entry description page by clicking on the
appropriate buttons.
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Billing
Billing is one of the important features for any paid Wi-Fi installation. WiFiLANs billing solution
provides a comprehensive sert of tools for handling all billing related activities associated with
the paid hotspot or Wi-Fi installation. It includes credit card authorization and clearing, user
management, provisioning users, reporting, promotions campaigns, prepaid coupons and
configuring flexible billing plans. WiFiLAN also integrates all billing information with RADIUS and
CRM features to provide a complete, integrated solution to the customers.
Billing management works in tandem with RADIUS server and a billing server. The billing server
is responsible for handling recurring and batch billing. The RADIUS server is responsible for
limiting user access based on billing plans (users signed up for a day should be given only days
access), enforcing restrictions specified on prepaid coupons, suspending users on credit card
failures and generating billing reports based on usage and other RADIUS parameters.
Manager can view over 10 different types of billing reports based on the historical and real-time
data captured in the database.
To view the Billing submenus, click on the Billing button in the Main Menu. It displays the
following submenu options:
Sub Menu
Admin
Users
Plans
Prepaid
Transactions
Promotions
Function
Configure parameters for the billing server.
View and manage billing users
Create and manage billing plans and taxes
Create prepaid coupons and view their usage
List transaction history and run manual debit and credit
transactions
Define promotion campaigns and view the promotion usage
Reports
Billing Administration
Configure Billing
The Configure Billing tab allows administrators to control the functions of the billing server and
customize the operation of billing module. They can parameters to control the functioning of the
billing server. Any updates will take effect during the next execution cycle of the billing server.
Administrators can also specify various email templates that will be sent to the end-user when the
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specific condition occurs in the billing process. For example, the Confirmation template is sent to
the end-user after the new user registration process is complete.
The table below provides a description of each parameter that is configured in this section:
Attribute
Billing Cycle Time
From Billing Email
Notify Registrations
New Registration
Emails
Billing Summary
Emails
Reg. Confirmation
Template
Receipt Template
Card Decline
Template
Card Expiring
Template
Max Failed
Attempts
Suspend On Fail
Release on
Success
Verify Card
Updates
Description
The time of the day when the billing cycle should be
invoked
The email address from where the billing emails will be
sent to the subscribers
Whether to notify new registrations to the email
addresses listed below
The email addresses (comma separated) that will
receive notification when new user registers
The email addresses (comma separated) that will
receive billing summary emails from the billing server
The email template that will be used to construct the
registration confirmation email. This email is sent to the
newly registered customer.
The receipt email template that is sent to the customer
when the customers credit card is charged
The email template sent to the customer when the credit
card is decline by the merchant gateway
The email template sent to the customer when the credit
card is due to expire
Number of times the billing server will try charging a
customers credit card. On exceeding the attempts, the
customers account may be suspended and customer
will be notified. Please note that transaction cost may be
incurred for each failed attempt
Whether to suspend the customers account when the
credit card transaction fails
Whether to release the customers account (make it
active) when the credit card transaction succeeds after it
was failed.
Whether to verify the credit card when the customer
updates his/her credit card from the account
management portal
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Configure Gateway
Configures the merchant gateway parameters like the merchant account id and PIN code. The list
of supported merchant gateway is provided in the Gateway Type drop-down box.
Attribute
Gateway Type
Merchant ID
PIN Code
Confirm PIN Code
Description
Select the type of merchant gateway
The merchant gateway identifier provided by the
merchant bank
The secret PIN code for the account
Confirmation of PIN Code
Note: Please contact your merchant account provider for this information.
Configure Payment
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This section captures the business and payment information of the WiFiLAN account holder. The
payment information is used to charge the account holder for using WiFiLAN services. The
address information is used for sending snail mails or payment checks (for customers who dont
have their personal merchant account). The email address is used for electronic communication
with the customer.
Billing Users
WiFiLAN maintains billing user and RADIUS user accounts separately. This distinction is needed
to support free user accounts, prepaid coupons and bulk user accounts. While each billing user
will have a corresponding RADIUS user account, the reverse MAY not be true. Administrators
can create RADIUS users separately without entering any billing information. Such accounts are
used to support sites that provide free registration.
The billing user accounts will contains billing information such as credit card number, billing
address and card expiry date that is used for charging usage fee to the customer. A new billing
user can be created in two ways: 1) Registration/Signup portal page 2) New Billing User page in
WiFiLAN. In each scenario, WiFiLAN inserts a RADIUS account entry and a billing account entry
in the database.
Alternatively, administrators can also create billing account entry from an existing RADIUS user
entry. This any be used by sites that provide free access to their customers for the trail period and
then move them to paid accounts.
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users group and encrypted password. To change any information, just update the necessary
fields and hit submit.
If the users status is changed from active to suspended then the user wont be able to
authenticate with the RADIUS server. On the contrary, to unsuspend the user, change the users
status from suspended to active.
Note: If the card number is changed, then WiFiLAN does not verify the changes against the
merchant gateway. The new card number will be used during next billing iteration.
The form below displays the information that is collected for an existing RADIUS user. The Billing
Address and name information is automatically filled from the existing RADIUS data. If the billing
address is different from the primary address, then the administrator can change it.
All the fields marked with * are required.
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If the New User button is clicked, then both the RADIUS and billing information is collected
separately as displayed below in the form. The authentication section collects the RADIUS
authentication information, the general section collects the general RADIUS information and the
billing section collects the billing related information for the new user.
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Billing Plans
Administrators can define billing plans that the end-users can select during the registration
process. The user will be charge a usage fee based on the rates defined in the billing plan. Each
billing plan has a unique ID that needs to be passed to WiFiLAN during the registration process.
WiFiLAN will calculate setup fee with taxes and apply appropriate promotions before charging the
customer. The setup fee is a one-time charge and is generally charged during the account
registration process. The recurring fee, if any, is charged at the end of each billing cycle. The
billing cycle is defined along the plan.
WiFiLAN also supports time-based plans with validity periods. So, to create a daily plan that will
expire exactly after 24 hours, the administrator defines the plan with a validity period and validity
unit. The user account will be activated as soon as the registration completes and the plan will
remain valid for exactly one day. WiFiLAN will terminate access for the user after the validity
period is reached.
The billing cycle and validity periods are highly customizable. This allows administrators to create
highly customized billing plans, specific for their needs.
List Plans
To view all the plans defined in the system, click on the List Plans tab. The table displays all the
active and inactive plans in the system. Each entry in the table contains the plan name, the plan
ID, setup fee (in USD), recurring fee (in USD) and the status of the plan.
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New Plan
To define a new billing plan, click on the New Plan tab. Administrators are given an option to
create a one-time or recurring billing plan as shown below:
Select the appropriate type of plan and click Select. Before creating a plan for a new location, you
need to create a plan group for that location. The group helps you neatly organize your plans and
view location based statistics for the plans. To create a new plan group, click on the New button
next to Plan Group field.
Next, enter the appropriate information for the plan. Brief description for each field is given below:
Attribute
Plan Name
Plan Group
Setup Fee
Recurring Fee
Description
Billing Cycle
Validity
Number of User
Is Active
Description
The name of the billing plan
Group name of the plan
The one-time setup fee for the plan in USD
The recurring fee that will be charged to users credit
card during each billing cycle. In USD.
Short description of the billing plan
Indicates the frequency of billing cycle. For example, it
should be 1 week for a weekly plan.
Enter the validity period for the plan. Select appropriate
validity unit from the drop-down list.
Number of users allowed to use the plan
Indicates whether the plan is active in the system
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Edit Plan
To edit an existing plan, click on the name of the plan in the List Plans tab. Please note that the
changes will take effect for the next billing cycle.
Delete Plan
To delete a billing plan, click on the Delete button on the Edit Plan tab. Please note that only the
billing plans with no associated users can be deleted. If users are associated with a billing
plan, then an error will be flagged.
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Billing Taxes
WiFiLAN allows administrators to define taxes against billing plans. This allows WiFiLAN to
automatically calculate taxes on the amount charged to the customer. If no tax is defined for the
billing plan, then the administrator needs to ensure that appropriate tax amount is included in the
setup or recurring fee of the billing plan.
Taxes will be automatically calculated during all (real-time, manual or recurring) WiFiLAN
transactions. A tax can have a sub-tax associated with it. Sub-Tax is calculated against the taxed
amount. For example:
List price: $20
Parent Tax (5% of list price): $20 * 5% = $1
Amount with parent tax: $21
Sub-Tax (2%): $21 * 2% = $0.42
Total amount with taxes: $21 + 0.42 = $21.42
List Taxes
To view all the taxes defined in the system, click on the List Taxes tab. The table displays the tax
name, location (if applicable), associated plan and the tax percentage. A tax can also have a subtax associated with it. Sub-Tax will be displayed as the child of parent tax.
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New Tax
To create a new tax entry, click on the New Tax tab. Enter/Select the right parameters and click
submit button. To create a sub-tax, make sure that you select the right parent tax entry. Tax
Location and Tax Description fields are only for informational purpose.
Edit Tax
All existing taxes can be edited by clicking on the name of the tax on the List Taxes page. Make
the necessary changes and click the submit button. The changes to tax information will be
reflected in the next billing cycle or during the next registration process.
Administrators can also delete the tax by click on the delete button. Confirm the action to
complete the delete operation.
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Prepaid Cards
Prepaid cards or coupons are used for giving temporary access to transient users. Normally,
prepaid system is used in places where credit card signup is not viable and the hotspot operator
needs an alternative way of collecting fees from the subscribers. Prepaid coupons usually have
restricted time duration or limits of bandwidth or other usage parameters. The cards are
automatically activated when they are used and deactivated once the restriction is reached. For
example, 3 hours prepaid card will be expire after the user had finished using the card for 3
hours.
Prepaid cards are also a good way of introducing your service to your subscribers. Instead of
asking the subscribers to signup for recurring plan, the service provider can first ask the
subscriber to try out the service using the prepaid card system. If the potential subscriber is
satisfied, then she can signup for the monthly subscription service.
Prepaid coupons can vary based on the restrictions applied on them and how they are activated.
WiFiLAN provides an array of options to the administrator to create prepaid cards. He can create
prepaid cards based on following criteria:
Criteria
Location
Usage Duration
Bandwidth usage
Number of
sessions
Number of clients
Number of days
Specific Dates
Description
Cards can be used at a particular location only
Cumulative usage duration. Can have multiple session
Total bandwidth upload and downloaded
Total number of times the user has logged in
Total number of client machines the user used to log in
Number of days the card will remain active
Specific dates when the cards can be used
Administrators can also create cards based on combinations of the above criteria. For example,
to create cards for 3 hours durations that will be valid for 1 day, the administrator can choose
Usage Duration and Number of Days option. WiFiLAN will automatically disallow conditions that
are inconsistent.
Cards created with specific criteria are organized into prepaid groups. By changing the property
of the group, administrator can change the properties of all the cards listed in the group. For
example, if the administrator decides to change 3-hour limit to 4 hour limit, she just needs to
change the Usage Duration field for the group and the change will take effect for all cards.
WiFiLAN provides two different options to export the cards. The CSV format allows administrators
to view the list of cards and other relevant information in an excel document. The data can be
further modified or exported for printing. The PDF format allows administrators to print the prepaid
coupons on a business card paper. WiFiLAN provides an option to customize text and images on
these cards thus allowing administrators to create professional looking cards ready for
distribution.
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Administrators can view and edit the properties of a specific prepaid group by clicking on the
name of the prepaid group. Short description for each field is displayed on the right side of the
form. Administrator can change the necessary parameters for the group and save the changes by
clicking the submit button.
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To view all the prepaid coupons within a particular prepaid group, click on the List button.
WiFiLAN displays all the prepaid coupons within the group as shown below. The coupons that
have been used are displayed with active status. Unused cards are marked as new. The third
coupon displays the total usage time of the card. Administrators can export the prepaid codes by
clicking on the export button.
Activation Type
Description
Whether to create prepaid coupons with a randomly
generated pincode
Whether the card is valid only for specific locations
The type of restriction on the prepaid cards
1. Usage Time
2. Bandwidth usage
3. Specific Dates
4. Number of sessions
5. Number of days
6. Total clients
How the cards are activated. Valid types are
1. On first use
2. Immediately on creation
3. On a specific date
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The second-step will create a form based on the criteria selected in the first step. For example, if
usage time and number of days are checked, then WiFiLAN will prompt the administrator to
number of duration minutes and number of days as shown below. Additionally, administrator also
needs to enter a unique group name, number of cards to generate, user group for the cards and
the price for cards.
Prepaid Usage
To view the usage for a specific prepaid card, click on the username of the card in the List
Prepaid tab. The accounting information for the card is displayed along with the summary of the
total usage.
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To export prepaid codes, click on the export button in the top right corner of the page displaying
prepaid codes.
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Note: If you have Abode Reader 4.0 or higher, then WiFiLAN will automatically open a new
browser window to display the PDF document
Billing Transactions
All credit card transactions for end-users are recorded in WiFiLAN database. Transaction can
take place in three ways:
1. Manual transaction: Administrator charges existing customers credit card by manually
running the transaction against the merchant gateway. This is done using the New
Transaction tab.
2. Real-time transaction: Transactions are done in real-time when a subscriber registers
with the service using WiFiLAN web integration interface. The subscribers credit card
needs to be cleared and charged before the account is created in WiFiLAN database.
3. Recurring transaction: WiFiLAN billing server executes these transactions every night
by running credit cards through the merchant gateway. Usually these transactions are
done to charge recurring fee for regular subscribers.
All transactions incur transactions fees. If you are using your own merchant account, then
please consult with your merchant bank to find the rates for your transactions. Wifi-soft will
charge a small usage fee for processing your transactions. On the other hand, if you are using
merchant account provided by Wifi-soft, then please consult with our sales staff to determine your
transaction rates.
List Transactions
To view existing transactions, click on the List Transactions tab. The table displays all recorded
transactions sorted in descending order by transaction date. The list contains both successful and
failed transactions and the administrator can click on the specific transaction to view the details of
the transaction.
Each table entry contains the name of the user, order ID, type of transaction (credit or debit),
status of transaction, amount charged or credited and the date of transaction. The list can be
sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the underlined table header.
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Administrators can also search for specific transaction based on various search criteria listed in
the search box.
Transaction Details
The transaction details page displays the status of each transaction. It will display all the return
codes returned by the credit card processor of the merchant bank. WiFiLAN automatically parses
the response codes and displays a user-friendly message to the administrator.
The table below provides a brief description of each result field.
General Parameters
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Attribute
Billing Name
Plan Name
Response Code
Amount Charged
Transaction Type
Card Number
Transaction Date
Description
Name of the customer
Name of billing plan
Result of the transaction approved or declined
The total amount charged
Type of transaction
Encrypted card number of the customer
Date of the transaction
Description
The authorization code returned by the merchants
billing gateway
The result of AVS (address verification) process
Unique transaction ID
The reason for declining the transaction
Result of security verification
Description
The response code of the transaction
The return code for credit card authorization. 1 =
success, 0 = failure
AVS check code. WiFiLAN translates the code into userfriendly string
Unique transaction identifier
The code for declined transactions
The return code for CVV match
WiFiLAN also displays last 10 transactions for the user sorted in reverse chronological order.
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On the other hand, if Select Amount field is selected, then the administrator can specify an
amount that needs to be charged against the credit card. If any tax needs to be applied, the
amount should be included with the entry.
Before the transaction is processed through the merchant banks processor, the administrator is
given one more chance to review and confirm the transaction. The Confirm transaction page
displays all the details of the transaction. If the administrator needs to change any data in the
transaction, then s/he needs to go back and re-initialize the transaction. To submit the transaction
to the payment gateway, click on the Submit Transaction button.
WiFiLAN will display a success or error message based on the result of the transaction. The
response from payment gateway is logged in the transaction table.
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Note: Based on the type of payment gateway and its configuration settings, the payment will be
cleared immediately or after a few hours. Please refer to your payment gateway documentation
for more details on how the transactions are processed.
If successful, the merchant gateway will credit the specified amount to customers credit card.
WiFiLAN will log the credit transaction in the database.
Promotions
Promotion is a great marketing tool to increase subscriber base and promote new or existing
service. Administrators can run promotion campaigns that provide incentives like no setup cost,
discount on monthly fee or free service for specified time to lure new customers. WiFiLAN makes
it easy for the administrator to create and track these promotional campaigns using the promotion
feature.
Promotions usually have a unique promotion code that the new customers use during registration
process. This code helps WiFiLAN ascertain the kind of benefits the particular customer will
enjoy. The service provider is responsible for distributing the promotion codes to their potential
subscribers.
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If the customer signs up with a promotion code, then WiFiLAN will automatically apply the
promotion to the customers account. Once a particular promotion code is used, it is deactivated
from the system.
New Promotion
To create new promotion codes, click on the New Promotion tab under Promotion submenu. The
table below explains the purpose of each parameter in the form:
Attribute
Promotion Name
Dates
Number of Cards
Credit Amount
Plan
Description
Is Active
Description
Friendly name to identify the promotion. For example:
AugustPromotion
The range of dates during which the promotion is active.
Number of codes to generate
Amount in USD to credit to the customer who uses the
promotion code
The plan associated with these promotion codes.
Short description of the promotion
Whether the promotion is active
List Promotions
To view the promotion campaigns currently defined in the system, click on the List Promotion tab.
The list of promotions is displayed in a tabular format. Each table row contains the name of the
promotion, credit amount, plan name, total number of promotion codes and the start date for the
promotion. To view the current status of a particular promotion, click on the List button under the
action column.
To edit a promotion, click on the name of the promotion.
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General Administration
The general administration portion of WiFiLAN provides options to manage WiFiLAN accounts,
edit profile, view application usage history and manage extended device and user parameters. To
view the submenu for general administration, click on the Admin menu option in the Main Menu.
Administrator Account
WiFiLAN administrators can create unlimited number of sub-accounts for their staff. Each subaccount can be configured differently thus allowing administrators to precisely control access to
each feature in WiFiLAN. For example, the billing staff will need access to billing and Radius
sections in WiFiLAN but may not be interested in network related data. On the contrary, the
network technicians would have full control to network data but would not need access to billing
related data. All reports, especially billing ones, should be only accessible to managers and
executives. WiFiLANs fine-grained access control list allows administrators to easily create such
complex access rules.
Accounts are categorized into two types admin and viewer. Admin accounts have privileges to
add, edit and delete WiFiLAN data, while the viewer accounts are restricted to view-only access
of WiFiLAN data. Furthermore, the access control list is used to configure access for each type of
account.
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The Access Control section allows administrators to configure the access rights to various
WiFiLAN features. The administrator can select appropriate radio button against the feature name
depending upon the right for that account. The description of each option is as follows:
Field
Full Control
Edit
ReadOnly
Hidden
Description
The account holder has full control for the feature
including deletion rights
The account holder is only allowed to view and
change the existing information. He cant delete the
record.
The account holder can only view the information in
this feature. No edits or deletes are allowed
The feature is hidden from the account holder.
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Note: Only, the account holders (including administrator) having access to Admin Accounts
feature can create or change account access.
List Accounts
To view the list of all accounts, click on Accounts submenu and then on the List Admins tab. A
table containing all the accounts in the system is displayed. The administrator can click on the
account name to view and edit the account information.
Viewer Accounts
The viewer accounts are used for providing view-only access to the people outside the
organization. These accounts are purely for viewing WiFiLAN data and dont have access to all
the features in WiFiLAN. These accounts are generally used for viewing reporting and statistical
information in WiFiLAN.
Viewer accounts do not have access to main WiFiLAN application. Instead, a subset of WiFiLAN
is created specially for viewer account. This sub-application is accessible from the following link:
https://www.wifi-soft.net/wifilan/wisplogin/
Like Admin accounts, the viewer accounts have two sections account information and access
control. The account information section allows administrators to enter username, password,
account name and email address for the viewer account. Additionally, the administrator can
specify the one or more locations for the viewer account. If the locations are specified, then the
viewer account will have access only to the data for those locations. All the other location
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information will be hidden for that viewer account. The administrator can choose to leave the
location field blank, in which case the viewer account will have access to data for all locations.
This feature is useful to provide the view-only access to location managers for a particular
hotspot.
The access control section allows administrators to specify the features that can be viewed by the
account holder. To hide a feature, select the Hide radio button. Moreover, if all the features for a
particular section (E.g. Billing) are hidden, then the menu for that section (Billing) will be
automatically hidden in the Main Menu.
Once all the viewer account is configured, the administrator can click on the Create Viewer button
to create a new viewer account.
List Viewer
To view the list of all viewer defined in the system, click on the List Viewer tab. A table containing
information for all viewer accounts is displayed. The administrator can click on the account name
to view or edit the information for a specific viewer.
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Usage History
WiFiLAN keeps track of all login and database changes in WiFiLAN. This feature allows
administrator to monitor changes done by various WiFiLAN account holders and creates an audit
trail to track changes in the application. It may also help in diagnosing problems by backtracking
the changes made to WiFiLAN configuration.
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To add a new device attribute, click on the Device Attrs submenu and then on New Device
Attribute. Enter data in appropriate fields and make sure that the Is Visible box is checked. A new
attribute is added to the device section.
The new attribute appears in the Extended Attribute section on the New Device and Edit Device
page.
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Edit Profile
The edit profile page allows administrators to change the profile for the WiFiLAN customer.
Besides setting the contact details, address and home page information, administrators can also
select the currency, date format and default time zone for the customer. WiFiLAN uses this
configuration to automatically calculate data adjustments and displaying dates and currency
symbols on WiFiLAN pages.
Note: WiFiLAN uses algorithms to automatically adjust all reports, graphs and display information
based on the selected time zone.
Changing Password
To change the current account password, click on Password submenu. The user will be prompted
to enter the old password and then the new password. Click on the Update Password button to
confirm the password change. The changes will take effect when the account holder tries to login
the next time.
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Portal Management
Portal Management section allows administrators to create customized portal pages for login,
signup, account management and trouble ticket reporting. These portals are categorized into two
types: authentication portals and provisioning portals. The authentication portals include login and
landing pages. The login page is the page accepts username and password from the user and
sends this information to wireless gateway for authentication. The landing page is displayed to
the user after a successful login.
The provisioning portal pages include signup, account management, change password and report
problem pages. The signup page allows new subscribers to enter their billing information and
register for the service. Account management and change password pages are used to manage
existing accounts. Lastly, the report problem pages are used to enter problem tickets in WiFiLAN.
Each portal page is generated from pre-defined templates. The administrators can select an
appropriate template while creating these portal pages. WiFiLAN allows administrators to further
customize these templates by providing options to select components on the page, uploading
images and editing text. The template can be previewed several times before finalizing the design
and layout of the page.
Portal pages also support advertisements. This can become an additional source of income for
hotspot operators.
Portal menu
The main portal menu is shown below:
Menu
Admin
Authentication
Provisioning
Advertisements
Description
Set default values for portal content
Manage Authentication portals and add Free Links
Manage Provisioning portals
Manage Advertisements on portal pages
Admin
This section allows administrators to customize default images, free links and other text on portal
page. By default, WiFiLAN will insert the text and images defined in this section on the portal
page. Administrators are free to customize the default text or images for the portal page. Any
advertisements and freelinks need to be added before configuring them on the portal admin.
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Free Links
Body Text
Terms & Conditions
Footer
Title
Home URL
Description
Default logo image for all customer portals.
Default top banner applied to all portals.
Default Ads to display on authentication portals. Ad image 1 is applied
to left side, ad image 2 is applied to right side, and ad image 3 is
applied to bottom of portal. Ad image 3 is supposed to be a banner type
image.
Default free links to show on login portals.
Default portal body text.
Default Terms and conditions text to be applied on login portals.
Default footer for all portals. Administrator can put html code if required
Default Title of all portal pages. This is displayed in title bar of portal
pages.
This is customers home URL. It is available as a link from his logo on
the portals.
Authentication
Login Portals
Login portals are used by users/subscribers to log into the Wi-Fi network. WiFiLAN provides
several options to highly customize these pages. Additionally, administrators can insert gateway
specific forms in the login area. This allows them to customize the login behavior based on the
type of gateway.
List Login Portals
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This page lists all login portals defined in WiFiLAN database. By clicking on the any name of
portal page, administrators can edit the settings and customize the page. The URL link opens the
portal page in preview mode in a separate browser window. The list can be sorted based on the
device name or page name.
Has Ads
Description
Select template design for the login page.
Select device for which you want to design portal page. You are
allowed to design one page for each device.
Enter portal name here. This is for administrators reference only.
Enter custom title for the portal. If not specified default title is
applied.
Check if you want to show terms and conditions box on login portal.
User has to agree to terms and conditions before submitting the
login request. If this option is checked and text is not customized
then default terms and conditions data is applied. Make sure that
you have defined admin section correctly.
Check whether you want to display ads on your portal.
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Check if you want free links on your login portal. If checked and not
customized, then default free links are added on the portal page.
Check this option if you want to display signup link on login portal.
This link points to another portal page used for new user
registrations.
Check this option if you want to display Account Management page
link on login portal.
Check this option if you want to display Change Password page link
on login portal.
Check this option if you want to display Report Problem page link
on login portal.
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After clicking Continue button, administrator is redirected to a design page based on the selected
template. He can customize any image or text on the page by clicking on the placeholder. For
example, to customize company logo, click on the Company Logo section. Advertisements can
be inserted by clicking on the Ad Image section.
In case you decide to add/remove an item on the page, you can click on the back link. Refresh
link will refresh the page with the newly customized information. Finally, the Finish button will
save all the changes in WiFiLAN and create a portal link for the specific device.
How to customize
This image appears in top left corner of the page. You can just click
this image to customize the company logo. A dialog box appears
that provides a button to upload the logo image. By default, the
page will display the logo selected in the portal admin section.
Top Banner
Top banner is wide top image that appears on login portal page. By
default, the top banner image is the one that you have selected in
the portal admin section. By clicking on this image a popup window
appears where you can choose another image.
These links on design page take you to provisioning pages that you
might have selected on the earlier page. If you dont have
provisioning pages defined for the current device, then there is no
need to add these links. (Please remember, previews are not
customizable. If you want to customize provisioning pages then you
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Login Form
Free Links
Site Image
Body Text
Has Ads
Has Free Links
Description
Select the template design for the page
Select the device name. The login page will be hosted on the
selected device
Edit the portal page name
Edit custom title for the portal.
Check if you want to show terms and conditions box on login portal.
Users need to agree with terms and conditions before their login
request is submitted. If this option is checked and not customized
on the design page, then the default terms and conditions defined
in admin section are displayed.
Check if you want to display ads on your portal.
Check if you want free links on your login portal. If this option is
checked and not customized on the design page, then default free
links are added on portal.
Check this option if you want to display signup link on login portal.
This link points to signup page from new user signup / registration
are done.
Check this option if you want to display Account Management page
link on login portal.
Copyright 2005 Wifi-soft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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Check this option if you want to display Change Password page link
on login portal.
Check this option if you want to display Report Problem page link
on login portal.
Landing Portals
Landing pages are displayed after the user has successfully logged in. These pages usually
contain company-specific content such as special offers, advertisements along with other content
such as local information, news, announcements, etc.
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Description
Select the design template for the page
Select device for which you want to design portal page. You are
allowed to design one page for each device.
Enter portal name here. This is for administrators reference only.
Enter custom title for the portal. If not specified, default title is
applied.
Check if you want ads on your landing portal.
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The portal design feature makes the design of landing page fast and easy process. Designing a
portal page can be tedious task if one has to place everything manually in html pages. To simplify
this process, WiFiLAN allows administrators to work with template and customize any image and
text on the template by clicking on the customizable item. The page below displays one such
template design page.
The back link is used to navigate to previous page. Administrators can change setting on this
page to add/remove items from the template page. To refresh the change made, click on the
refresh link. Clicking on the Finish button creates the landing page and returns back to the List
landing page.
Feature
Company Logo
How to customize
This image appears in top left corner of the page. You can just click
this image to customize the company logo. A dialog box appears
that provides a button to upload the logo image. By default, the
page will display the logo selected in the portal admin section.
Top Banner
Top banner is wide top image that appears on login portal page. By
default, the top banner image is the one that you have selected in
the portal admin section. By clicking on this image a popup window
appears where you can choose another image.
The text or html code that goes in the center of the page. You can
click the text to customize the content.
Various advertisements that appear on the landing page.
Administrators can insert images in this area. Please note that there
are size restrictions on these images. WiFiLAN will automatically
resize these images to fit the size shown. Administrators should
ensure that the images fit the allotted area by previewing the
Body Text
Left Ad, Right Ad and
Bottom ad image
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Footer
Description
Select template design, which you like for your device.
Device for which portal was designed. You cant change device.
Edit portal name here.
Edit custom title for the portal.
Check if you want ads on your landing page.
Free Links
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Free links are provided for unauthenticated users to try out the service before they subscribe for
it. Wireless gateway will automatically fetch these links without authenticating the user. Please
note that different gateways have different mechanisms for providing this service. Please consult
you gateway documentation to figure out how to configure these links.
This section allows administrators to customize the free links on the login page.
List Free links
List free links page displays the list of all free links defined in the database. Administrators can
click on the link to edit the URL and anchor text. The table displays the name of the link along
with the URL.
The list can be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the Link header.
Description
The anchor text for the link
Enter actual url of link.
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Description
Edit text to display as link.
Edit actual url of link.
Provisioning
Sign Up Portals
Unregistered users use the signup portal pages to register with WiFiLAN. Usually there is a link to
this page from the login page. The signup page accepts personal and billing information from the
subscriber and creates a new account in WiFiLAN database.
This section describes how to create new signup pages. Once created, these pages have all the
necessary code to interface WiFiLAN registration system.
Administrators can create distinct signup portal for each gateway device. Since each location has
a separate gateway, the signup page will be specific for the given location.
List Signup portals
To view the list of all signup pages, click on the List Signups tab under Portal -> Provisioning ->
Signup menu. The list of all signup portal pages is displayed in a tabular format. To preview an
existing signup page, click on the specific URL. The records can be sorted in ascending or
descending order by clicking on the underlined headers.
Administrators can edit a specific portal page by clicking on the name of the page.
New Sign Up portal
To create a new signup portal page, click on the New Signup tab. The first screen displays
options to customize the layout and items on the page. It also allows administrators to select a
design template that will be customized further. To save the changes and continue to design
page, click the Continue button. Only one signup page can be customized for a particular device.
Select the appropriate device from the list.
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Description
Select the design template for the login page
Select the device associated with the signup page. You are allowed
to design one page for one device.
Enter portal name here. This is for reference only.
Enter custom title for the portal. If not specified default title is
applied.
Check if you want subscribers to select a billing plan during
registration.
Check if you want subscribers to enter billing data while registering
themselves. If not specified, then no billing information is captured
in WiFiLAN. All users created without billing data will be active in
RADIUS database and not in billing database.
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How to customize
This image appears in top left corner of the page. You can just click
this image to customize the company logo. A dialog box appears
that provides a button to upload the logo image. By default, the
page will display the logo selected in the portal admin section.
Top Banner
Top banner is wide top image that appears on login portal page. By
default, the top banner image is the one that you have selected in
the portal admin section. By clicking on this image a popup window
appears where you can choose another image.
These links are automatically displayed based on the items
selected on the previous page. You can preview the corresponding
portal page by clicking on the link. Please note that the preview
pages are not customizable, instead administrators have to
customize the provisioning page in their respective sections.
Click on any plan in list to select plans that will be displayed to
users. This list is visible only if the Has Plans option is checked on
the previous page.
Click special instructions text to add custom special instructions for
users signing up. A new popup window opens where you can enter
your custom special instructions.
Provisioning Links
(Not customizable
Preview only)
Plans
Special Instructions
The next screen displays the registration form as it would appear to your new subscribers. The
actual form is not editable.
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Description
Select template design that you would like to use for the signup
page.
Device for which portal was designed. You cant change the
selected device.
Edit portal name here.
Edit custom title for the portal.
Check if you want users to signup using specific billing plan page.
Check if you want users to register along with their billing data.
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To sort the list in ascending or descending order, click on the name of the page or device name.
Description
Select template design that you would like to use for portal page.
Select device that will host the portal page. You are allowed to
design one page for each device.
Enter portal name here. This is for reference only.
Enter custom title for the portal. If not specified, default title is
applied.
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The design process contains two screens for account management page. The first screen
displays the design for login page and the second screen displays the page for changing users
information.
The back link is used to navigate to the settings page and the refresh link refreshes the design
page. Clicking on Continue button takes the administrator to the next screen where actual
account information is accepted.
How to customize
This image appears in top left corner of the page. You can just click
this image to customize the company logo. A dialog box appears
that provides a button to upload the logo image. By default, the
page will display the logo selected in the portal admin section.
Top Banner
Top banner is wide top image that appears on login portal page. By
default, the top banner image is the one that you have selected in
the portal admin section. By clicking on this image a popup window
appears where you can choose another image.
These links are automatically displayed based on the items
selected on the previous page. You can preview the corresponding
portal page by clicking on the link. Please note that the preview
pages are not customizable, instead administrators have to
customize the provisioning page in their respective sections.
Click special instructions text to add custom special instructions for
using the page. A new popup window opens where you can enter
your custom special instructions.
This button allows logged in users to log out. This is disabled on the
design page.
Provisioning Links
(Not customizable
Preview only)
Special Instructions
Logout
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Description
Select template design that is used for portal design.
Device for which portal was designed. You cant change the device.
Edit the name of portal page
Edit the customized title for the portal.
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To create a new Change Password portal page, click on the New Change Password tab. The first
screen allows you to select a portal template design and customize the contents on the page.
Select the device that will host or display this portal page.
Click on Continue button to proceed to the design page.
Description
Select template design for the portal page.
Select gateway device that will host or display this portal page. You
are allowed to design one page for each device.
Enter portal name here. This is for reference only.
Enter custom title for the portal. If not specified default title is
applied.
How to customize
Copyright 2005 Wifi-soft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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Company Logo
This image appears in top left corner of the page. You can just click
this image to customize the company logo. A dialog box appears
that provides a button to upload the logo image. By default, the
page will display the logo selected in the portal admin section.
Top Banner
Top banner is wide top image that appears on login portal page. By
default, the top banner image is the one that you have selected in
the portal admin section. By clicking on this image a popup window
appears where you can choose another image.
These links are automatically displayed based on the items
selected on the previous page. You can preview the corresponding
portal page by clicking on the link. Please note that the preview
pages are not customizable, instead administrators have to
customize the provisioning page in their respective sections.
Click special instructions text to add custom special instructions for
using the page. A new popup window opens where you can enter
your custom special instructions.
This button allows logged in users to log out. This is disabled on the
design page.
Provisioning Links
(Not customizable
Preview only)
Special Instructions
Logout
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Description
Select template design for the portal page
Device for which portal was designed. You cant change a selected
device.
Change the name of the portal page.
Edit customized title for the portal
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Description
Select template design used for designing the page.
Select device for which you want to design portal page. You are
allowed to design one page for each device.
Enter portal name here. This is for reference only.
Enter custom title for the portal. If not specified, default title is
applied.
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How to customize
This image appears in top left corner of the page. You can just click
this image to customize the company logo. A dialog box appears
that provides a button to upload the logo image. By default, the
page will display the logo selected in the portal admin section.
Top Banner
Top banner is wide top image that appears on login portal page. By
default, the top banner image is the one that you have selected in
the portal admin section. By clicking on this image a popup window
appears where you can choose another image.
These links are automatically displayed based on the items
selected on the previous page. You can preview the corresponding
portal page by clicking on the link. Please note that the preview
pages are not customizable, instead administrators have to
customize the provisioning page in their respective sections.
Click special instructions text to add custom special instructions for
using the page. A new popup window opens where you can enter
your custom special instructions.
Provisioning Links
(Not customizable
Preview only)
Special Instructions
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Description
Select template design for the portal page.
Gateway device for which the portal is designed. You cant change
the selected device name.
Edit the portal name.
Edit customized title for the portal.
Advertisements
Advertisement section is used for managing advertisements displayed on the login and landing
portals. Administrators can upload any types of advertisements as long as they confirm to the
size specifications laid out on the page. The advertisements can be fixed or animated depending
on the requirements. Each advertisement is displayed as an image link. When clicked, the user is
redirected to the particular advertisement.
Note: Administrators are responsible for configuring the freelinks appropriately so that users can
view the advertisements from the login page without authenticating.
WiFiLAN allows administrators to upload advertisements separately and then select them during
the portal page design. This eases the process of changing the advertisements on the portal
pages.
List Ads
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To view all the advertisements defined in the database, click on the Portal -> Advertisements
menu. Each entry in the list contains the name of the ad and its URL. To edit a particular entry,
click on the name of the ad.
The list can be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the Adname header.
New Ads
To create new advertisement entry, click on the New Ad tab. Add or upload the respective
entries. Please make sure that the Ad image confirms to the size and dimensions listed on the
template design page.
Description
Adname for administrator reference.
Image that will be displayed on portals.
Actual URL for the ad. The browser is redirect to this link when user
clicks on the ad image. The URL should be present in freelinks if
the ad is displayed on the login page.
Edit Ads
Administrator can edit existing ads in this section. All current values for selected ad are provided
in edit fields.
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Description
Adname for administrator reference.
Image that will be displayed on portals.
Actual URL for the ad. The browser is redirect to this link when user
clicks on the ad image. The URL should be present in freelinks if
the ad is displayed on the login page.
Delete Ads
To delete an existing ad, click on the Delete button on the Edit Ad page. The administrator is
prompted for a confirmation. If confirmed, the ad entry is deleted from the database and the ad
image is removed permanently.
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Reporting
Reporting is one of the most important functions of WiFiLAN. It provides wide range of reports
that allows managers to get consolidated and summarized view of WiFiLAN data. The RADIUS
reports provide statistics on user sessions, bandwidth usage, online users, usage based on
weekdays or hour of the day, unique user sessions, etc. The Network reports provide real-time
view of the network status, reliability of gateways and access points and audit reports. The CRM
reports provide consolidated summary of problem tickets and other CRM related statistics. Lastly,
the billing reports provide information about revenue generated, credited amounts, expense
reports, failed transactions, prepaid usage and promotion effectiveness.
Radius Reports
The RADIUS reports are further sub-divided into different categories. The online user report
provides a real-time view of the current users on the network. The device usage report allows
administrators to select various report criteria to create graphs from usage data such as sessions,
upload and download bandwidth, session time, unique users etc. User accounting report provides
a tabular view of all accounting data, while the authentication report displays overall
authentication statistics.
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Once the list of devices is selected, the administrator can click on the Display Users button to get
a detailed view of online users. The online users are categorized into different tables, one for
each selected device. The device name and external IP address are displayed on the top of each
table. The online users contain both the normal RADIUS users and AutoLogins. Since AutoLogins
dont have full names, they are displayed as Unknown User. The duration is the total time of the
users session.
Administrators can click on the username for a particular user to get user details and accounting
history for that user.
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The administrator can select appropriate time unit based on the time interval selected. If a
shorted time unit is selected with a large time interval, then the graph will appear cluttered.
Administrator needs to adjust the time unit or time interval appropriately to generate a viewable
graph. The above options give unmatched flexibility to the administrators to generate customized
graphs.
Report Type
Number of sessions vs time
Downloaded bytes vs time
Uploaded bytes vs time
Total time usage vs time
Number of sessions vs day of
week
Number of sessions vs hour
of day
Number of unique users vs
hour of day
Number of sessions vs
Session Duration
Number of users vs total
usage
Description
Displays a bar chart of total number of session against
time axis
Displays total downloaded bytes against time
Displays total uploaded bytes against time
Sum of all session durations vs time
Graph of number of sessions against the day of the
week within the given time period
Graph of number of sessions against hour of the day
within the given time period. Helps in understanding
the usage trends in the day
Graph of unique users against hour of the day within a
given time period.
Displays a graph of number of sessions against
session duration. Helps in understanding how long
users typically use the service
Displays number of users against total usage time.
Helps in understanding the stickiness of the service.
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This graph displays the number of sessions against hour of the day within a given time period.
WiFiLAN searches for all accounting records within the given time interval and plots them against
the hour of the day. This graph is helpful in understanding the peak hours and trends in usage.
The administrators can crop, cut and paste these graphs in their reports for the management, if
required.
Accounting Report
The accounting report page displays all accounting records in descending order of their start time.
The records are displayed in a tabular format with each row containing the username, session
start time, MAC address of the end users computer, bandwidth usage and duration of the
session. The administrator can click on the username to get more detailed accounting information
for the specific user.
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Additionally, the administrators can search for particular accounting records based on the
username or start and end times for user sessions. The nextpage and prevpage links are used to
navigate between pages.
To view accounting report, click on RADIUS -> Reports and then on the Accounting tab.
To get a detailed accounting report for a particular user, administrators can click on the username
in the accounting table or enter the username in the accounting search section. List of all
accounting records that match the search criteria are displayed as shown below. The table
contains session start time, NAT IP address of the users computer, location, duration, upload,
download and session end reason for a particular user session.
The administrators can also enter various search criteria in the search section to narrow the
search.
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Authentication Report
The authentication report provides an overview of the authentication history at the RADIUS
server. Administrators can either view the report in tabular, pie or bar chart format. In case of
tabular format, each row corresponding to an hour interval starting from the current hour. The
other columns contain total number of successful logins, incorrect password and incorrect
username attempts.
To view authentication report, click on the RADIUS -> Reports submenu and then on the Auth
Report tab.
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To view graphical representation of the authentication data, select Bar Graph as the display type
and click the Submit button.
Similarly, to view a pie chart of the authentication data for past 24 hours, select Display
Type = Pie Chart and click the Submit button.
Network Reports
The network report section allows administrators to view the reliability of the network devices and
perform audit on their network. Typically, the management can refer to the reliability graph and
understand the reliability of their service at a particular location. Additionally, they can also
compare the reliabilities of two or more devices over a period of time. The audit report scans all
network devices and retrieves the configuration parameters from each device. The administrators
can use this report to ensure that all network configurations are correct and up-to-date.
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To view reliability graph, click on Network -> Status submenu and then on Reliability Report tab.
The administrator needs to select one or more devices or sub-devices in the criteria section and a
time interval for the graph. The reliability for a particular day is expressed in percentage and
plotted against the time axis.
Administrator can select one or more devices to view a comparative reliability of the devices.
The audit report generation uses SNMP protocol to scan selected devices and retrieves the value
of the select network parameter. These values are displayed to the administrator in a table. The
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network administrator is responsible for reviewing the parameters and correctly the device
configuration as needed.
Summary Reports
To view problem ticket summary reports, click on CRM -> Reports submenu and Reports tab.
This page provides just a summary about the various reports.
To view summary of problem tickets, click on the Ticket Summary tab. This page allows
administrators to view ticket summary based on various display options. To view tickets assigned
to each agent, select Display = By Agent and click Submit. The table displays all the defined
agents and the total number of tickets assigned to them. Additionally, the table also displays data
based on the state of the ticket, namely New, Assigned, Resolved and Closed.
To view tickets based on the user-defined categories, select Display = By Category and then click
Submit. All user-defined categories are displayed in the Name column and the corresponding
number of tickets is displayed in the other columns.
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Similarly, to view tickets based on assigned severity, select Display = By Severity and click
Submit.
To view tickets based on location from where they were originated, select Display = By Location.
Note: While web-based integration, the developer needs to set the location field. If the field is
missing, this report wont be able to generate any data
Finally, to view resolved or closed tickets based on the resolution, select Display = By Resolution
and click Submit. The resolution field is set when the agent resolves the ticket. WiFiLAN allows
agents to create arbitrary resolution identifiers on the New Ticket page.
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Billing Reports
Billing reports section provides comprehensive set of reports for the billing-related data. The
index page displays all the available billing reports to the administrator. Administrators of
WiFiLAN are responsible for creating sub-accounts with appropriate access control to ensure the
security of this data. Access to these reports can be controlled using the Access Control List
section while create a new WiFiLAN account.
The figure below displays the various reports available to the administrator along with its short
description. The administrator can click on the report name to view the respective report.
Revenue Reports
The revenue reports provide statistics on total revenues collected from the end-users. These
include setup fees, recurring charges and any other charges that were manually billed against the
end-users credit cards. Three different types of revenue reports are available to the
administrator:
1. Revenue Vs Date report
2. Revenue Vs Plan report
3. Revenue Vs Location report
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160
This report displays the total revenue earned at each site over a specified time interval. The
administrator needs to select the interval and time unit (granularity) of the report. The results are
displayed in a tabular format as shown below.
Note: Billing users should be assigned to specific locations when they register with the service.
Please refer to website integration section to learn how to assign users to specific locations.
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Each table column contains the billing name, plan name, encrypted card number, date and time
of the failed transaction, amount that was tried to be billed and total number of days the payment
is due.
The Late by column helps administrators to determine customers who have cross a threshold
for late payment. Administrators can send reminder emails to these customers requesting them to
update their credit card information or other personal details to ensure that their cards are
charged properly and the accounts are activated again.
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Expense Report
The expense report shows the expense (WiFiLAN usage fees) incurred for a particular month.
These expenses are directly deducted from your credit card that you have specified during
registration or in the Payment Information section in WiFiLAN. The administrator can also view
old expense report by select the right month and year from the drop-down list.
The table displays expense item name, rate, total number of items (if applicable) and the charges.
The MTD (month-to-date) displays the expenses for the current month up to the current date.
Please note: The rates mentioned above are for illustration only. Please contact our sales staff to
get the right rates for your service.
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The image below shows a sample graph of the promotion usage. The report displays total
number of promotion codes used on the Y-axis and time duration on X-axis.
To view summary of all promotions defined in the system, click on the Promotion Summary tab. It
displays the total number of used, unused and total number of promotion codes in a tabular
format.
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The graph below highlights prepaid session against time. The number of prepaid sessions is
plotted on the Y-axis and the time period on X-axis. Administrators can select more than one
device to view comparative prepaid usage at selected devices.
To view total prepaid session usage against time, select the second report type from the dropdown list. This graph plots session usage in minutes on Y-axis and time period on X-axis.
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Lastly, to view unique prepaid users vs time, select the third report type from the drop-down list.
This graph displays unique prepaid users on Y-axis and time period on the X-axis.
Fraud Report
The fraud report allows administrators to search for users who are consistently using multiple
user plans when they have subscribed for a single user plan. For example, users camping in RV
parks or staying in apartments can purchase a single user plan and share the username and
password with their friends or neighbors. The report filters outliers and list only those users who
have fraudulent usage pattern.
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Web-based Integration
For subscription-based plans, service providers need to provide an online registration system that
would allow their new subscribers to fill a form and register for the service online. The online
signup process involves minimal human intervention and is extremely cost-effective and hasslefree. The backend system captures all the relevant data from the user and creates a new user
account instantaneously.
Since WiFiLAN provides an hosted solution, service providers need to insert custom code in their
online signup page that would interface with WiFiLAN backend and create user accounts. WifiSoft has created a web interface that is used for this process. The HTML programmer can easily
create custom looking web pages for the service provider and interface them with WiFiLAN
backend using the documentation provided below.
Alternatively, the service provider can use Wifi-Soft portal design feature to create custom signup
and login pages for their hotspots that have the necessary integration logic built-in.
User Registration
A new user can register with WiFiLAN by submitting an online registration form. The registration
form contains personal information such as name, address, phone numbers, etc and billing
information such as credit card number, expiry date, CVV number. This information is posted to
user registration module in WiFiLAN, which reads the form data, validates and authorizes a credit
card and creates a new user account in the system.
If the registration is successful, then the module redirects users browser to the success URL
specified in the form. Else if the registration fails, the module redirects the users browser to fail
URL along with the return code and return message.
The table explains all the parameters that should be submitted along with the registration form. All
fields market REQUIRED should be included in the form.
Parameter
req_customercode
Usage
REQUIRED
req_successurl
REQUIRED
req_failurl
REQUIRED
req_action
REQUIRED
req_username
REQUIRED
req_password
req_repassword
req_fullname
req_email
req_address
req_city
req_state
req_zipcode
req_country
req_homephone
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
OPTIONAL
Description
Unique customer code assigned to the customer.
Wifi-soft will provide this code to the customer during
integration process
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
registration is successful
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
registration fails
Type of action requested. Values should be
1. create
Username of the end user. For example: john@wifisoft.com
The password for the new end user
Retyped password for the user
Users full name
Email address of the user
Mailing address
Mailing city
Mailing state code (eg: TX, AL, etc)
Zipcode for the mailing address
Country name
Home phone number including area code
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req_cellphone
req_workphone
req_locationid
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
Req_billdatarequired
REQUIRED
req_billingname
req_billingaddress
req_billingcity
req_billingstate
req_billingzipcode
req_billingcountry
req_cardnumber
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
req_cardtype
Req_cardexpirydate
req_cvvnumber
req_planid
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
Description
Success
Invalid Customer Id
Invalid username or password
Missing action parameter
Data validation error
Missing return URL
Internal error
Card transaction failed
Verify Email
The verify email module is used for verifying the email address entered by the user during the
registration process. Since many user enter fake email address during registration, this feature
ensure that the user is able to complete the registration process only if a valid email address is
entered. Obtaining a valid email address is especially important for service providers who provide
service for an extended period of time. Invoice, receipts, important announcements are generally
sent electronically to the user via email.
If the verification is successful, then the module redirects users browser to the success URL
specified in the HTML form posted to the URL listed below. Else, if the verification fails, the
module redirects the users browser to fail URL along with the return code and return message.
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The table explains all the parameters that should be submitted along with the verificaiton form. All
fields market REQUIRED should be included in the form.
Parameter
req_customercode
Usage
REQUIRED
req_successurl
REQUIRED
req_failurl
REQUIRED
req_action
REQUIRED
req_username
req_email
req_verifycode
REQUIRED
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
Description
Unique customer code assigned to the customer.
Wifi-soft will provide this code to the customer
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
verification is successful
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
verification fails
Type of action requested. Values are
2. create
3. edit
4. delete
Usename of user whose account needs verification
Email address of the user
The verification code sent to the user in the email
Description
Success
Invalid Customer Id
Account already verified or invalid verification code
Missing action parameter
Data validation error
Missing return URL
Internal error
Account Management
The account management module allows existing users to change their personal and billing
information online. Generally, the account management page is listed on the login page and uses
existing username and password to provide access to the account information. For example, an
user can change his credit card information before the card expires to ensure that his service
remains uninterrupted.
The account management page should be designed so that the user first logs into module using
his/her username and password. Once logged in, the user is offered a form to make changes to
the account information. Additionally a button should be provided so that the user can log out of
the session.
If the updates are successful, then the module redirects users browser to the success URL
specified in the HTML form posted to the URL listed below. Else, if the update fails, the module
redirects the users browser to fail URL along with the return code and return message.
The table explains all the parameters that should be submitted along with the update form. All
fields market REQUIRED should be included in the form.
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Parameter
req_customercode
Usage
REQUIRED
req_successurl
REQUIRED
req_failurl
REQUIRED
req_action
REQUIRED
req_username
req_password
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
req_firstname
req_lastname
req_email
req_address
req_city
req_state
req_zipcode
req_country
req_homephone
req_cellphone
req_workphone
req_aptnumber
req_locationid
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
req_billingname
req_billingaddress
req_billingcity
req_billingstate
req_billingzipcode
req_billingcountry
req_billingemail
req_cardnumber
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
req_cardtype
req_cardexpirydate
req_cardexpirymonth
OPTIONAL
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
req_cardexpiryyear
req_cvvnumber
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
Description
Unique customer code assigned to the customer.
Wifi-soft will provide this code to the customer during
integration process
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
registration is successful
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
registration fails
Type of action requested. Accepted values are
5. login
6. edit
7. logout
Username of the end user. (used for login action)
The password for the new end user (used for login
action)
Users firstname
Users lastname
Email address of the user
Mailing address
Mailing city
Mailing state code (eg: TX, AL, etc)
Zipcode for the mailing address
Country name
Home phone number including area code
Cell phone number including area code
Work phone number including area code
Apartment number of the user
A unique identifier for the location. The identifier is
available in WiFiLAN under RADIUS -> Location
section
Billing name of the new user
Billing address
Billing city name
Billing state code (e.g. TX, AL, etc)
Billing zipcode
Billing country name
Billing email if separate from the primary email
Card number of the users credit card. No spaces or
dashes allowed
Type of card: credit or debit
Expiry date for the card in MM/DD/YYYY format.
Expiry month of the card
(either cardexpirydate or cardexpirymonth &
cardexpiryyear should be provided)
Expiry year of the card
The 3-4 digits CVV number on the card.
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Return Code
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
Description
Success
Invalid Customer Id
Account already verified or invalid verification code
Missing action parameter
Data validation error
Missing return URL
Internal error
Card authorization error
Change Password
Change password module allows existing users to change the password that they use to access
the service. Users need to first login using their existing username and password, and then reenter their old password along with a new one. If the new password is accepted by the system,
then the changes take effect immediately.
The change password page should be designed so that the user first logs into module using
his/her username and password. Once logged in, the user is offered a form to change the old
password. Additionally a button should be provided so that the user can log out of the session.
If the updates are successful, then the module redirects users browser to the success URL
specified in the HTML form posted to the URL listed below. Else, if the update fails, the module
redirects the users browser to fail URL along with the return code and return message.
The table explains all the parameters that should be submitted along with the update form. All
fields market REQUIRED should be included in the form.
Parameter
req_customercode
Usage
REQUIRED
req_successurl
REQUIRED
req_failurl
REQUIRED
req_action
REQUIRED
req_username
req_password
req_oldpassword
req_newpassword
req_newpassword2
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
Description
Unique customer code assigned to the customer.
Wifi-soft will provide this code to the customer during
integration process
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
registration is successful
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the user
registration fails
Type of action requested. Accepted values
1. login
2. edit
3. logout
Username of the user (used for login action)
Password for the user
Old password for the user (used for edit action)
New password
Retyped password
Description
Copyright 2005 Wifi-soft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
Success
Invalid Customer Id
Account already verified or invalid verification code
Missing action parameter
Data validation error
Missing return URL
Internal error
Parameter
Req_customercode
Usage
REQUIRED
req_successurl
REQUIRED
req_failurl
REQUIRED
req_login
REQUIRED
req_pincode
REQUIRED
req_action
req_summary
req_description
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
req_from_email
req_from_name
req_category
req_notes
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
OPTIONAL
OPTIONAL
Description
Unique customer code assigned to the customer.
Wifi-soft will provide this code to the customer
during integration process
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the
user registration is successful
The browser will be redirected to this URL if the
user registration fails
Login name for the customer. Wifi-soft will provide
the login to the customer
Pin code for the customer. Wifi-soft will provide the
pin code to the customer
Type of action requested. Values should be create
Short summary of the problem ticket
Long description of the problem ticket including
steps to reproduce
The email address of the user submitting the ticket
Full name of the user submitting the ticket
Category for the ticket
Additional notes, if any, for the ticket
The problem ticket module can be configured to send automated email confirmation to the end
user with the newly created ticket number. It automatically substitutes template parameters with
correct user information before sending the email. To configure confirmation template, refer to the
Ticket Config section in CRM -> Admin.
URL for submitting the change password form is as follows:
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https://www.wifi-soft.net/wifilan/api/create_ticket.php
The explanation for return codes from the change password module is as shown below.
Return Code
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
Description
Success
Invalid Customer Id
Account already verified or invalid verification code
Missing action parameter
Data validation error
Missing return URL
Internal error
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Common Tasks
Adding new device
The device wizard is used to add a new device or gateway in WiFiLAN. The New Device Wizard
takes you step-by-step through the device creation process and ensures that all the details are
entered properly. To invoke the Device Wizard, click on the New Device Wizard button on the top
of New Device or New Gateway tab.
The administrator is prompted to select the type of the device. Upon selecting the type, he is
prompted to select either the Auto Wizard or Manual Wizard. In case of Auto Wizard, WiFiLAN
attempts to fetch the configuration data from the remote device using SNMP. An SNMP agent
needs to be running on the remote device to successfully fetch the configuration data. The
administrator also needs to know the public IP address and community name for the device.
For Manual Wizard, the administrator needs to enter the device configuration data by hand.
Select the appropriate device type.
The next page prompts administrator to either select the city where device is installed or create a
new city entry using the form below. Click Proceed after selecting or creating the city.
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Next, the administrator is prompted to choose a location or create a new location entry. Click
Proceed button after selecting an existing location or creating a new one.
The next page prompts administrator to enter various details about the device. The page is
divided into various sections General, Monitoring, Network, Authentication, Misc and Extended
Device Information. Since most of the information may be common across other devices, the
Apply Defaults button allows administrators to auto-fill the fields that contains common
information. The default values for devices are configured in Device -> Admin -> Device Default
section.
The Device Information section in Device Wizard is slightly different from the one in New Device
section. It prompts the administrator for some gateway attributes like Device Group, Secret,
Device UserName and Device Password. Once all the fields are entered, click on the Create
Device button to create a new gateway and device entry in WiFiLAN.
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c. From the install info list, click on the M icon next to a particular device
d. Select the appropriate device from the drop-down list in the pop-up window and
click on the Merge Info button
e. All the install information is merged with the device information.
f. Click on the Install tab in the Edit Device section to review whether the merge
was successful
g. Repeat the process for other device names.
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Reporting bugs
To report problems or bugs in WiFiLAN, use the Report Problem button located in the top-right
corner of the application screen.
A new window pops up that allows WiFiLAN users to enter necessary details about the problem.
All the fields marked with * are required fields. Although the Steps to Reproduce field is optional,
it is a good idea to enter the step-by-step procedure to replicate the problem.
An email is sent to our technical support team whenever a problem is reported. Depending on the
nature of the problem and complexity involved in fixing it, we will either provide a patch to existing
version or include the fix in the next versions of WiFiLAN.
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The customers can also report a problem by send an email to techsupport@wifi-soft.com. Please
include all the problem details along with steps to reproduce the problem.
Glossary
Access Point: The hardware device that provides RF (Radio Frequency) signal in a
desired area. Users with mobile devices like laptops, PDAs, tablets, etc connect to these
devices wirelessly and gain Internet access.
AutoLogin: Allows users to authenticate automatically with the RADIUS server and thus
gain access to Internet services. It uses MAC address of the users device to authenticate
the user
Email Template: A pre-written email with placeholders used for automating the task of
sending large number of similar emails. Used while sending bulk emails or automated
email responses to the customer.
Gateway: A Wi-Fi device that acts as a gatekeeper to the Internet. Besides acting as a
gatekeeper, this device can also functions as an access point, DHCP server, RADIUS
client, VPN client and firewall.
Portal Page: WiFiLAN creates these customized HTML pages using pre-defined design
templates and allows administrators to customize them based on their needs
SNMP: Stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. This protocol helps network
administrators to manage network devices using simple commands and parameters.
SNMP Trap: An SNMP trap is sent to a remote server whenever an interesting event
occurs in the network device.
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Tunneling: The concept of passing through a network device (usually a gateway) to gain
access to other devices that are unreachable from outside.
Wi-Fi or 802.11: A protocol defined by IEEE that allows short-range wireless connectivity
within unlicensed frequency spectrum.
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