Been asked by a friend of a friend who has a cafe and wants to offer 30 min free wifi to customers.

I know you can set most routers up fto only connect for x minutes in x period, so that's no issue.

The main question was how to protect him from people doing things they shouldnt to get him into trouble. Naughty sites, P2P etc etc.

Does anyone have any tips, or links to a guide to lock a router down?

Probably depends on what the router is... A lot of them allow you to block particular ports and sites, but that's a manual process for the blacklist which would be extremely time consuming and you'd never manually get them all and I would imagine the router's perfrmance would be shocking too when it has to check everything against several thousand words or addresses.

He may be better off putting a banner page up with T & Cs and stating that he is not responsible for users actions and that by using the service they are absolving him of all responsibility for their actions, (not sure where you'd stand legally on that though) or getting some software in the vein of surfcontrol on a server that does the blocking for you...

I think you're going to need something more complicated like a proxy server. You could run something like some flavour of linux with a proxy like squid. It wouldn't need a particularly powerful machine.

I think you're going to need something more complicated like a proxy server. You could run something like some flavour of linux with a proxy like squid. It wouldn't need a particularly powerful machine.

Maybe something like this would help http://www.safesquid.com

There are others out there too, but most are pretty expensive whereas this would require a cheap pc running linux (with a second NIC) and a fairly standard router

Edit: I need to learn to read before posting, this is a cost option too

Edited 26 May, 201016 yr by Raglits

Look at ZyXel as they have a product that you pay £x a year for automated blocking lists and AV etc.

Most routers have the option to block selected sites (drugs sex etc)

or if you have a server running the show, Set specifics in DNS to roon back to google or somthing similar

He may be better off putting a banner page up with T & Cs and stating that he is not responsible for users actions and that by using the service they are absolving him of all responsibility for their actions, (not sure where you'd stand legally on that though)

With the new digital economy bill regardless of the notice it would be their responsibility (in the case of P2P and copyright violations at least) and if it was noticed the ISP could be asked to disconnect the café. In theory anyway, with it being new and all we're yet to see. Small business open wifi was one of the major issues raised when the Bill was being pushed through.

opendns

Free, no hardware or software required.

Can be circumvented, but not by your average user.

Also - no reason to permit anything other than htttp(80) & https(443) really in a cafe environment, would block out a lot of p2p and other nefarious usage.

Edited 27 May, 201016 yr by foo

As above, openDNS, and block DNS requests to other servers. But to be honest a proxy server is your best bet. Allow http/https, pop3, smtp, imap and that should be the basics covered.

Would he need a business grade adsl service, as the ISP might suggest he was "supplying" the service to his customers.....? Chances are they might not notice though :-)

Yup Squid or Dans Guardian http://dansguardian.org/ will do the trick for free. You'll still need to find an old box to install it on, doesn't need to be anything wonderful.

You'll never be able to cover all the bases by hand in a router config.

Thanks all.

He doesnt want any PC stuff left on site, and would prefer a router only solution. Will look into removing all the ports and protocols except those posted above.

Just an idea ATM, as a number of new customers from a new office block nearby have been asking for wifi, and walking when he says he doesnt have it. He's settled on 30 mins per 24 hours to avoid people staying there all day.

Another question springs to mind, and that's range. Is there a way to restrict the signal to inside or very close by? Dont want freeloaders in the street.

Could also take a look at the dd-wrt firmware available for certain routers. Can be used for cyber cafe style functionality depending on which flavour you go for (and it's free too).

Been asked by a friend of a friend who has a cafe and wants to offer 30 min free wifi to customers.

Possibly somewhat leftfield, but I would hazard a guess that if they have to ask the question then they probably will struggle to run this in a retail environment - they'd be best talking to companies that provide and manage wi-fi hotspots (eg. thecloud.net). That way they can concentrate on running a cafe instead of providing IT support...

Possibly somewhat leftfield, but I would hazard a guess that if they have to ask the question then they probably will struggle to run this in a retail environment - they'd be best talking to companies that provide and manage wi-fi hotspots (eg. thecloud.net). That way they can concentrate on running a cafe instead of providing IT support...

I agree with you, but the sort of person that is no doubt walking away, would also no doubt walk away if they had to pay for it.

I agree with you, but the sort of person that is no doubt walking away, would also no doubt walk away if they had to pay for it.

Pretty sure most hotspot providers offer "free-to-consumer" packages these days...

Edited 28 May, 201016 yr by robmawer

Proper router capable of the things your friend is after won't be cheap. So a managed service might make more sense.

Routers should be able to reduce power to narrow the signal spread but wifi isn't as exact as cable.

Some of the more capable system will allow the owner to give out a code to allow use, so he can restrict use to paying customers. That way you don't need to reduce signal strength.

This might be of interest

http://www.publicip.net/

http://usemynet.com/

http://www.polkaspots.com/

We did something similar a while back, used the older version of one of these

My link

Comes with a little thermal printer with 3 buttons, setup the first one for say 30 mins for free, second one for an hour @£x and 3rd one for 4 hours @ £ X simple

Customer says can i have x minutes press the button, user and password printed job done

Pretty sure most hotspot providers offer "free-to-consumer" packages these days...

Indeed, but those packages are not always cheap to the business that is providing.

I know that with some mobile contracts you get free use of certain wireless, so I guess something sensible could be done.

Proper router capable of the things your friend is after won't be cheap. So a managed service might make more sense.

Routers should be able to reduce power to narrow the signal spread but wifi isn't as exact as cable.

Some of the more capable system will allow the owner to give out a code to allow use, so he can restrict use to paying customers. That way you don't need to reduce signal strength.

This might be of interest

http://www.publicip.net/

http://usemynet.com/

http://www.polkaspots.com/

As Above ZyXel do a router which will give a timed log in, when hooked up to a radius server (Some versions have it internally and can also restricts net access to a subset of activities.).

If needed you can buy a box (either separate or to tie into a till) that puts a password into it's built in radius server on the press of a button and prints a receipt with it on.

Connect the two together and bingo.

Therefore, buy a coffee, get 30 minutes to do would be easy. Receipt for the coffee has a key on it, which gives you your access for a while.

Saying that I do still think Rob is probably on the right train of thought about hot spot providers assuming they are not too expensive.

I know for doing a project with a prev employer these free access deals cost the firm quite a bit - only viable if you do serious footfall & trade per year.

The radius idea and a key on a receipt does sound much better security wise. I'll have a word and see if he has a suitable till.

Dallan, can I ask where you sourced your ZyXel N4100 from?

Got it through trade supplier, cant remember which company it was, but it should be easy enough to source

Also it wasn't an N4100 it was an older GXXX version

EDIT: just had a quick look on ebay and here is the one although its just 11mb B wireless but should be ok for general surfing, includes the 3 button printer

Ebay Link

Edited 29 May, 201016 yr by Dallan

Got it through trade supplier, cant remember which company it was, but it should be easy enough to source

Also it wasn't an N4100 it was an older GXXX version

EDIT: just had a quick look on ebay and here is the one although its just 11mb B wireless but should be ok for general surfing, includes the 3 button printer

Ebay Link

Thanks.

Passed the details on.