6 MONTHS WITH FIRSTSPOT

[wimaxspeed]

We have worked with the program for about 6 months and is a great application for our needs, we are a wireless ISP and we found the program to be very robust and reliable.

We have couple of issues though:

1- We have set on the 2003 server where we have installed the firstspot, bounche of Static NAT under Routing and remote access, for some of our customers who need outside access (We have the firstspot setted as a NAT server). Sometimes when we have to restart the firstspot, all the rules dissapear and we have to re-recreate them again, and this is a big problem because they are to many of them to be entered

2- Once in a while the DHCP service doesn't work well, the service and everything is UP, but the dhcp server delivers a IP with no gateway. (there are no more DHCP servers running. To fix this we have to manually restart the firstspot from the dispatcher page, and this causes to lose all the static NATs again.

3- Under PLAN configuration page there is no any option to suspend the account in a month, there are only minutes , hours and days. The problem with this is that we have a pre-paid subsription plan for month to month and considering that there are 31 days months we have to enter this value in days manually every time before the subscription expires.

4- We decide not to go for the new version update because it needs to validate the software through the INternet in order to start. What happens when for some reason the Internet is down ?? the service doesn't start? It keeps re-trying?

We are very happy with the software , we have a comprensive DataBase under MySQL and it works wonderful, so far the applications does what it is intended for.
Thanks

[alan]

1) you can take advantage of the post-startup batch file

2) Sometimes, it is actually the client PC which "hide" the gateway setting. Note that XP will hide the gateway IP if it detects a conflict. Also, are you using Multiple Network Segments?

3) This is definitely a good suggestion. We will probably add this in the future version.

4) When we designed "Online License Validation", we think it is natural there is Internet connection since FirstSpot is really used to manage Internet-enabled Hotspot. Also, there is backup server from our side so the chance of failure is quite low. Please refer to http://www.patronsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=945 for more information on the Online License Validation mechanism.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[tomr]

If FirstSpot is also the DHCP server for the LAN, does that mean no more DHCP for the LAN if the network connection is down? That would be a severe limitation.

So, can the DHCP server be always disabled on the FirstSoft computer and another device be the DHCP server for the LAN?

Thank you
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Tom Remmers

[alan]

You can disable FirstSpot DHCP server in the Configuration Manager.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~