Creating a captive portal

Hi everyone ,

I need to create a captive portal , so users must log in to a web page before they can access our network. The problem is that I do not have a clue of where to start .

Do you know what software is used for doing that ? I would like to try it on Windows server and Ubuntu server ?

Greetings

Dawson Lewis

 

If I was you, I would look at pfSense. It is based on FreeBSD UNIX, and supports captive portal out of the box.

If I may ask, what are you trying to accomplish?

 

I want that users in our network (at my workplace) to authenticate before they can surf the web . We have to many outsiders .

Dawson Lewis

 

Ahh, then yes, pfSense would definitely be my first pick. You will have everything you need without even having to add any plugins.

 

Do you know anything for Debian ? More concretely Ubuntu Server 9.04 .

Thanks for your time

 

You can do it on Ubuntu using custom firewall rules and some handwritten scripts, but I wouldn't. Essentially you're building a firewall, and Ubuntu arguably makes a poor one since it runs way too much unnecessary software by default. On the other hand, pfSense is designed to act as a firewall by default, and it installs and functions like an appliance. I would not try and use Ubuntu for this unless you already have an Ubuntu-based firewall in place for some reason.

 

So it means I will have to learn how to use FreeBSD . I heard it is pretty difficult to setup and use , I have two months for implementing this. Do you know if it differs a lot from ubuntu in what commands are concerned ?

And regarding the learning curve ? I know it depends on one's skills , but do you know if it takes long to learn it ?

 

Like I said, it installs and functions like an appliance. You don't really have to learn FreeBSD unless you want to. It's already setup to be a firewall out of the box. Once it's installed, you can administrate it from a web UI.

 

Ok , will download it and give it I try.

Thanks a lot

 

You're welcome.

 

Mikrotik RouterOS, feature called HotSpot. Not expensive. Installable on an old PC or a RouterBoard.
If you have outsiders with their own Laptops - a separate subnet with HotSpot is the only solution. If you need to give the outsiders your PCs - make them a domain user.