pfSense

I am using pfSense on a old computer with 4 network cards in a small hotel. It has two incoming lines that have now been increased to 5Mb each. One of the internal networks is feeding the wireless system for the guests. The other one is used for staff/front desk. I running failover on these lines at the moment and things are working well. BUT -

We are not using the captive portal at the moment. One reason is that it is a little bit of a hassel to set up - I can do it, so that is not a major hurdle. But the problem is that a captive portal these days have to handle a lot of different situations. And one of them is mobile browsers in all sizes and shapes.

I suggest that pfSense gets a standard template with basic css, but everything well laid out regarding classes etc. so it is really easy to adapt it. In this template, the stuff from this page should be added:

http://joomlaengineering.com/features/what-devices-does-construct-pro-detect

There are links at the top of the document for the basis that the guy is using in his Joomla templates and that is probably what you want for pfSense - not much point in running a full cms on a firewall :-) But being able to detect all these devices makes the captive portal REALLY useful for anyone that want to deploy it in a place where you can expect a lot of different devices will connect - hotels, coffe bars, schools, libraries etc. But also in companies with a lot of employees.

A solid captive portal like this can be a major "selling point" for pfSense and in some cases the single reason for using it.

A solution is only as good as it's weakest link, and at the moment, the fact that people have to do a major design to be able to deal with handheld devices pretty much stops it from being used.

Right now, we are using WPA passwords on the wireless routers and giving each customer a little paper with the password. It would be MUCH better to be able to give them a 24 hour password :-)