WISP questions

KevinG · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

I am considering FirstSpot for use in a Wireless ISP, and have a few questions:

1) My primary focus will be monthly customers (though I want to retain daily and hourly options for transient users). What sort of plan settings would best suit this type of service? Is there a way to set recurring billing by day-of-month rather than after-n-days? Also, I notice that the shopping cart redirects the user to PayPal on the initial purchase. How are the recurring purchases handled?

2) I do not want my monthly customers to have to log in once they have created an account. What are my options?

3) I want to offer public-static IP addresses as an upsell item. I saw in another post that in order to have static IPs on the private side of FirstSpot, the NAT function must be disabled. What will this do to the customers who are happy with private-dynamic addresses? Can I have both types at the same time?

4) How would I assign a static address to a particular MAC? I can see using FirstSpot's static DHCP mode and writing custom software to manage the listing file, but can I have the shopping cart trigger this program and pass parameters (the program would need to know the MAC and whether to assign a public or private address to it)?

KevinG · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

Anyone? Bueler?

mossmak · Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Oregon, USA

Any answers to this yet?

One thought I have had is having either static IP and / or different subnets for the monthly customers. Roamers will still need to login, and receive a DHCP, with a login prompt.

I think this is less of a firstspot issue, and more of a networking issue.

On the second question, I am investigating to see if the WorldPay "futurepay" option is compatible with Firstspot.

There is always Rodopi, if you have programming skills and lots of $$$. It does automated monthly billing, and doesn't care about public or private IPs - but you still have to figure out how to bypass the login for your monthly customers.

Personally, I have had very little luck with Rodopi.

I would like to see someone from PatronSoft answer these issues.

kevin · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 442

For question #1, FirstSpot supports recurred billing for both PayPal and WorldPay('s futurepay). It can be set to rebill your customers in every x day/week/month/year. In your case, you'll probably want to set it to 1-month. Set it inside Configuation Manager, you would first define a plan (under the Plan tab) and then a shopping cart item (under the Shopping Cart tab) based on the plan you just defined. Setting the proper recurring frequency there will do.
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alan · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 4435

2) There is no direct way to do it. The closest workaround is to use Client Pass-through feature

3) No. This is really a networking issue. NAT is either on or off, and you cannot have both.

4) What you desribe should work. You need to customize the callpack PHP file (note that for PayPal and WorldPay it is different file) so that it will trigger your custom software.
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KevinG · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

Of course, answers always bring about further questions:

2) If I use client passthrough, will the per-user throttling still work? I'm guessing not, since the user is not logging in.

3) I figure I can use the NAT function of the gateway router easily enough, with due consideration to proper routing. What should be the public and private interface and DHCP settings on the FirstSpot server?

alan · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 4435

2) Per-user throttling will not work, but Global throttling will still work okay.

3) Private Network Interface - you shouldn't touch the IP setting in Windows. FirstSpot will configure it correctly during startup

Public Network Interface - you need to set the IP setting in Windows. As long as this interface connects to the Internet correctly, you can set any DHCP setting.
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KevinG · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

The assigned-IP idea won't work, because it would prevent new customers from signing up, since setting DHCP to static will only assign IPs to MACs (or vice-versa) it already knows about, and I obviously won't know a new customer's MAC before s/he signs up, right?

So here's the next idea: Can I drop a cookie on the customer's machine when I receive the paid notification from PayPal, and then check for it during subsequent logins, skipping the login if it is found? How could I cut off a user's access (i.e. for non-payment or abuse) under this scheme?

KevinG · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

Another thought: DHCP servers typically have an option for reserving addresses for particular MACs, allowing all others to be dynamic. Can FirstSpot's DHCP do something like this? If not, could I use Windows Server's DHCP server on the same machine, or would the DHCP need to be on a separate server?

alan · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 4435

FirstSpot DHCP server in v4 will have integrated static and dynamic IP assignment. Currently (v3) you can only select either static or dymamic (i.e. auto) mode.

You might want to check out http://patronsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=786 also...
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KevinG · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Maryland

Sounds good. If I buy v3 now, what will the v4 upgrade cost me when it comes out? Do I get a certain "software assurance" period?

alan · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 4435

You can buy our maintenance option. See http://www.patronsoft.com/firstspot/buy_now.html for more details.
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