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MWRPHotspot

This is a package for Melbourne Wireless Nodes to implement a simple light-weight captive portal. The majority of existing captive portal applications are more comercially oriented and often require the setup of a radius server.

Latest released version is v0.8.1. Released 14/08/2006.


Typical Setup


-----------
| DHCP    |
| Client  |
| (Laptop)|
|         |
-----------
     |
     |-WiFi - 'melbournewireless.org.au' Adhoc SSID (Behind NAT)
     |-10.10.x.x
     |
------------
| Melb     |
| Wireless |
| Node     |
| running  |
| MWHotspot|
------------
     |
     |-Node Owner's wired LAN (Behind NAT)
     |-192.168.x.x
     |
------------
| Node     |
| Owner's  |
| Internet |
| NAT      |
| Router   |
------------
     |
     |-Broadband ISP connection
     |-To Node Owner's Premesis
     |
\/\/\/\/\/\/
/          \
\ Internet /
/          \
\          /
/\/\/\/\/\/\
     |
     |-Authentication between Hotspot node and wireless.org.au server
     |
-----------
| WoA     |
| Server  |
| running |
| MW User |
| Database|
-----------


Dan's Suggested Development Roadmap

After version 0.8.1...

Solve double-NAT issue


Simple Config option


Ready for Beta users.

If you have a WRT and want to run it as a hotspot and know a little about iptables ( or want to ) then install the package and give it a try leave any questions or feedback at the bottom of this page

Hotspot


This implementation is based on a few simple concepts:

There is a default splash page that lists terms and conditions of network access. A user may connect to the network if they agree with the T&Cs. There is also a check box to indicate if you are a Melbourne Wireless member.

The Node owner can decide what level of access (full, restricted or none) they want to grant the public and a MW member. Restricted levels of access can be set up that allow only specified services ( e.g. POP3, SSH, certain web sites).

Disclaimer

This package is not for everyone. If you know your way around iptables then you probably don't need it. It is intended for people that are not comfortable tweaking these things but want to open their node up in a controlled manner.

Also, if you try this and things go wrong I'll try to get you going again, but you may have to wait until I have time to do it. I offer no warrenty or suitability of purpose etc. etc.

If you are unsure then don't install it just now, wait until the beta testing has worked out the remaining bugs.

How it works

On boot up an init script ( S45firewall ) sets up your firewall. In the PREROUTING table it redirects all http traffic from the wireless interface to the access port of the patched httpd. This is the capture. All other traffic from the wireless interface is REJECTED.

The user is presented with a splash page (like this ). If they do not accept the T&Cs then they get a page requesting they dis-associate form the network. They will not be able to do anything as the firewall will DROP their packets.

If the user is a MW member and check the option, they will get a redirect to the MW web site and get a sign-on page. If they correctly sign on then the firewall will be modified to allow them through.

A member of the public does not have to sign-on, once they accept the T&Cs they get re-directed to a welcome page ( like this ) that lets then know what access they have.

Once the user has been added to either the public_users or member_users table then they are able to access the network and services as defined for the group they are in.

What is involved

Firewall

If you are running the hotspot package then it becomes your firewall. It is configured using iptables and is very tight. You choose what ports and services you want to allow each class of user. See MWRPfirewall for a more detailed description and hints on how to set it up if you have a different arrangement of ports and interfaces.

Platforms

OpenWrt package

The Beta version is available to download. You can download it and install from a local machine or run
 ipkg install http://melbournewireless.org.au/files/wrt54/Packages/mwhotspot_0.8.1_mipsel.ipk

Once installed it will add Melb Wireless to your packages and you can install updates easily by entering
ipkg update
ipkg mwhotspot

Other Linux

There is a general tarball that you can download and install. There are only a few moving parts so it's not that dificult. Included is a tiny httpd for x86 that will be installed with the tarball. This can be run on a non-standard port allowing the "captured" http requests to be processed correctly while signed-on users cold access web content from a regular (un-modified) web server.

CVS access

CVS access is available. Use the following:
   $ export CVSROOT=:pserver:anoncvs@wireless.org.au:/var/cvs
   $ cvs checkout mwrp


Non-Linux

Sorry, this is based around manipulating the netfilter parameters using iptables.

Customization and configuration

Once the package is installed there is a simple shell script menu ( /bin/hotpot/menuconfig ). Running this script will generate your hotspot configuration data.

You can run the script as may times as you want, at any time. The changes will not come into effect until the S45firewall is reloaded ( either by running it from the command line or rebooting ).
Melbourne Wireless hotspot
Configuration Menu ------------------ 1. Select Zones 2. Configure Zone 3. Manage ACL 4. Configure ports 5. Exit, Save changes 6. Quit Don't save -------------------
make selection (1-6)

1. Select Zones

You are presented with the names of the four configurable zones here:

You need to select the zones you want first before doing any further configuration.

2. Configure Zone

For each of the zones you selected in part 1. of the menu there are a number of configuration parameters that need to be captured. A simple set of questions ask for the name of the interface (i.e. br0, vlan1, eth1) IP addresses and other configuration information needed for the hotspot and firewall only. This will not do any configuration of the NVRAM variables, interfaces or routing and bridging. If you try to configure a zone and get a message indicating the zone is not configured go back to !. Select Zones and re-select the zone.

3. Manage ACL

A privileged user is one that does not have to go through the capture process, i.e. your own laptop machine. Using this mechanism I have turned of the AP I was using internally as my laptop can now just pass through my MW Node instead.

Privileged users information is maintained in the file /etc/hotspot/hotspot.acl. A line in this file looks like this:
 <mac address>        <hostname>   <group>  <access>
 00:03:23:d3:b1:34    myhotspot1    owner    allow
 00:30:45:ea:2d:f7    badguy        public   deny

4. Configure ports

In this menu section you are able to select the access to grant MW members and the general public ( full, restricted, none). If restricted access is selected then you are prompted for ports that should be open for this group of users.

A future enhancement will make this a bit easier to use and allow you to capture IP addresses or address ranges.

Moving capture httpd to non standard port

The httpd that is provided in the package is a very lightweight one. For a full linux distribution you probably want to keep using your existing web server and should just run the tiny httpd on a different port.

Using menuconfig select Configure Zones and LAN zone. One of the options there will be for setting the port used by the capture httpd. Changing this option to another number will set an environment variable 'HS_LAN_CAPTURE_PORT that is used by both the S45firewall and the S50httpd scripts.

In the S45firewall script
$IPT -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --destport 80 
     -j DNAT --to ${NETIP}:${HS_LAN_CAPTURE_PORT:-80}


In the S50httpd script
grr- example here breaks wiki page formatting


All unauthorized user traffic will get captured in PREROUTING and redirected to port 8086. Once the user is authorized then they will get ACCEPTed in PREROUTING before this line so their port 80 traffic will be unaffected.

Problems

Internet connection

When configuring the script if you are not connected to the internet then you may not be able to correctly resolve names. The router should be configured as a DNS proxy and the DHCP server should have the appropriate options configured to tell DHCP clients to use the router as the DNS resolver. The firewall script is set up to allow icmp, dhcp and dns traffic from the public LAN segment to the router rather than forward it to other devices.

Limited set of ports able to be opened for members and public users

This was a first pass list any ports you think should be included in the menu and I'll add them. I could also add a little bit of code to add any port I suppose.

Beta testing comments & questions


Excellent work Dave - I've just installed it on a WRT54G v3.1 running WhiteRussian RC4. Just one thing - RC4 now has it's own web interface "webif" that also uses /www/index.html on the default port. I had to remove the "webif" package before I could install MWRPhotspot.OK, There is no reason we need to re-direct to index.html, will try it out with a different name to avoid confusion

The splash page should probably appear on port 80 on the wireless interface whilst the admin webpage should appear on port 80 the lan interface. Likewise, port 8086 could be used as an "obscure port" to allow the admin to see the admin webpage via the wireless interface, and to preview the splash page on the LAN port will make this configurable
To summarise my recommended defaults:

On the Public WIFI (and maybe WAN) interface:
Port 80 - mwhotspot (redirect to 8086), Port 8080 webif

On the Private LAN interface:
Port 80 - webif, Port 8086 mwhotspot - no redirect


Since OpenWRT now has a web interface, It'd be nice if these menuconfig scripts were web-based also. I believe webif has been designed for "plug-in" interfaces for other packages. The script based menu was easy for me- non-web person to offer configuration for the masses. All it does is set variables in files that are used by the other parts of the package. A web knowledgable person should be able to do the same in a few hours using the script as a template

In general, this package is a corker - it is already much better than NoCatSplash - which I've used and had all sorts of trouble with.

It'd be nice if the config scripts could do a bit of autoconfiguring - i.e. doing ifconfig and iwconfig and working out what interface is what - and presenting these interfaces to the user and ask him/her which is public or private. Under Openwrt, having the public wireless interface separate from the LAN would require breaking the bridge - perhaps we could distribute a package that does this automatically by setting the appropriate NVRAM vars - with the appropriate warnings and "are you sure" dialogs. yeah, We almost ask all the right questions. I can do the auto config in the next pass. Wanted to get this bit locked down before moving forward though.

A package like this raises a couple of political points too - do we want to say that Internet access is being provided by Melbourne Wireless? I notice that the terms and conditions are a bit of a cut and paste job - but that's OK I understand it's beta software. We should sit down and discuss what we want the splash page to say. I Defer to the comittee on this. It can say whatever they want it to say. I will add a choice of splash to the config menu so we can have the theemes as you have suggested

My personal view is that perhaps in the future the package should be "themeable" - and that the Melb Wireless look should be one of many themes. the default theme should be a generic splash page with generic T&Cs. yep - will do

But once again, great job! thanks! - happy to help move the ball forward here


Version 7 (current) modified Mon, 26 Jul 2021 12:49:29 +0000 by Dan
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