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regulating wireless access

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by wlewis

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Each summer when I go on vacation I return to several thousand e-mails waiting for me. It would east my life as well as open the possibility to fight a MAJOR fire at work if I had interent access.

I have contacted a couple of folks at the beach that I have developed friendships with and have sked them about becoming a hot spot.

I have a bite but need some help.

Remember these people are coffee shop folks not IT folks. The fast and dirty way is to install a PC, cable modem and wireless router and let folks log in with their own laptops. That I know how to get accomplished.

SHOULD my friend want to regulate who logs on and when I do not know how to accomplish.

Again the simple non technical way in my mind would be to require a login to access t his wireless network and change the password daily. When someone makes a purchase they are given todays password.

What is the cheep easy simple way to accomplish this?

Thanks,

Walt

7 replies

by sgt_shultz

the password way sounds about as good as any but think too much trouble. think you are overthink this. i support poor mom and pop cybercafe. they have clipboard where put down your time. honor system. no problems. you want to encourage, not discourage...think: just try it and see how it goes...

by wazzauk

The easiest way I have found is to get a router that allows you to restrict by MAC address. When someone wants access you add their MAC address, when they go, you take it off again. That way if someone wants it for a day or a week, or even a year, they don't have to get the password every day.

by charlesharris

To be honest there is no cheap and easy way to do this. You are either going to shell out a pretty penny to develop this system.

The easiest way to do this it to purchase your equipment, build you list of clients that will be placed on the network. From there you wil need to enable WEP (preferably 128 encryption) and provide the users with the key.

Another method is to shell out a few more penny's and invest in some Alvarion equipment, find an ISP (or become a local ISP for your community/group). This is not simple nor is it quick - but it meets the agenda.

Overall, I would suggest that you go the way of the simple router (suggest netgear routers), several repeaters and enable WEP (you can change the encyption key as often or as many times as you like) inorder to keep it simple and secure.

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