Covering a small city with Wifi

Janacaj · Apr 7, 2014

Hey folks!

A newbie to the forum, so first of all, hello, hope things are well

Now, the reason of my visit lol
I know a bit about networking, but im afraid just on small office/home office level.

I live in small costal town, and recently i started thinking about providing internet to tourists who cant use their mobile data packet in roaming.
Basically, i have a location from which i can "cover" the entire town (very small town with a peninsula on the other side) and on which i can get a high speed internet.Plan is to keep the network open with splash screen where the user would get "Send a message to XXXXXX number and get your password" screen.After the sends out the message, he get a new message with password that allows him to connect and use internet for some period of time.
How to create something like this?I dont need a full hands on guide, but some directions would be awesome

I know, maybe a newbie and a stupid question, but each answer is greatly appreciated

Beezy · Apr 7, 2014

even if you buy X amount of routers to create some sort of bridged or virtual type network, how will you power them and where will you put them? you think shops will willingly allow this without taking a piece of the action?

Janacaj · Apr 7, 2014

Beezy :

I already have a place with electricity on which i can "bring up" internet connection, dont need to ask anyone anything.
Good thing is that city is one side, peninsula is on the other.Since town is very small, i doubt that i would get more that 60-70 people connected at the same time (most likely 30-40).
This is small Paint masterpiece on how it would look like

I heard about Mikrotik, but dunno how that works :\

bill001g · Apr 7, 2014

The technical part is likely not that hard there are many systems designed for hotels that can do this.

First problem is that you have to have a internet account that allows for this. Most do not allow resale or even free use without the ISP permission which normally means they charge you more.

Next problem will be to try to prevent those that are going to abuse a open internet consume all your bandwidth. You will have to setup another system to try to prevent this. You get into the whack a mole problem and the bit torrent guys tend to be very skilled at by passing anything you can think of.

Then you get into the legal issues. In the long run you will not be put in jail for abuse by other people but many things you will be guilty until you prove you are innocent. If you do not have a way to identify who is actually using your system and keep good logs they will assume you personally did it. Even if they can not prove it they will seize equipment and you will be down. In most cases they can neither prove nor disprove that it was you behind the keyboard so many people will always suspect it was you that did it.

If you really want to do this you are best off hiring a company who has good lawyers to set this up for you. You would then just pay them to run it and they take all the legal risks.

This falls under the no good deed goes unpunished rule. Lots of small business no longer provide free internet because of thing like this.

fguasque · Apr 7, 2014

Hi Janacaj, i see that you are looking for a small business wireless solution. You may check the WAP321 (http://cs.co/90009zpn). This offers captive portal support that lets you create a wireless hotspot with visitor authentication. Feel free to message me for further assistance. Hope this helps!

Janacaj · Apr 7, 2014

bill001g :

Hey Bill!
Thank you for your answer, i really really mean it.
About the things you wrote

1)You are right about the type of internet connection that i will need (from speed and stability side).Legal issues arent a problem (will explain bellow).I am currently looking into which provider to choose.
2)Legal side of story.Luckily, in this case i can say that im happy that i dont live in "fully developed" country

Nobody will make me any problems if i set few access points. Torrenting is bad, but yes, i cant fully stop it.
3)I havent tough about security and who is accessing internet.Very very good point.I wonder is there any way to protect myself (keeping IP addresses and MAC logs?)

For now, my biggest question is technical side, how to make it work, but i will deffinetely take into considerations all the things you wrote

Thank you!

bill001g · Apr 7, 2014

Used to be some free ones. I know chillspot still sorta works in the dd-wrt image of the routers. The basic function you want is called captive portal but that is only the interception and login part. Your best bet may be with something like a pfsense firewall server. This is a free firewall which means you will have to learn how to setup the things you want. It is a little more complex than a hotspot management system because it is a full firewall and has many features you will not need. The key is its free. I don't know if there are any good hotspot software that can do logging and filtering that don't cost money. Still if you do not want or have the time to learn how to put it together paying for commercial software may be a valid option.

Janacaj · Apr 7, 2014

bill001g :

My primary field of work is webdevelopment, so to be honest, beside simple wifi network i really dont know anything.
I read somewhere about Mikrotik and that that can be used for these purposes, but again, with my knowledge of the matter, that may be too much for me

bill001g · Apr 7, 2014

I have never seen that brand. Most times I use either engenius or ubiquiti for outdoor. All you really need is one or more wireless AP you will run them with no security just to make things simple. The hard part is the software/server between the AP and the internet connection. This is why I recommend a firewall like pfsense. It should be able to do the security ie the user temporary login as well as all the routing and dhcp and stuff.

Even if you were to buy a commercial product it would be set up similar.
The wireless radio part is the simplest part of the project. It is mostly getting enough directional AP to cover the area you want and hooking them to a switch. You then hook the switch to whatever server/firewall you use. With the small number of users and them all in a single direction you might get buy with a single engenius enh200 or enh202. You might need 2 if it is too narrow of a coverage area with just 1.

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