Does it require client MACs? And, not require DHCP?

[pcatiprodotnet]

Greetings,
1. Does this CP software require client MAC address to be available? We have an IP-routed only network, so all clients will appear to have the same MAC as our router.
2. We must use our own DHCP servers. Does this software allow us to use our dhcp and disable the software's built-in dhcp if one exists?
Thanks,
- Pete

[alan]

1. No. You can use our IP-based Session Handling option (i.e. identify by IP instead of MAC).

2. Yes. Please check out Chapter 3 (DHCP section) of firstspot_guide.pdf for guideline to setup 3rd party DHCP server.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[pcatiprodotnet]

Thank you for the responses.

One more question:

When the client submit his username/password, does it use https / ssl? Or, send it plain text which is easily sniffed?

Thanks, -pc

[alan]

We support both. You can turn on "SSL-enabled login pages" in the Authentication Server category within Configuration Manager.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[pcatiprodotnet]

Thanks!

I see you support "passive login for IP phones". Does this mean that, if we desire, PatronSoft can detect when user is attempting to use an IP phone (eg. vonage) and allow them immediate access to the internet by auto-logging them into a designated free account that we has special settings for IP phones like bandwidth max up/down? We planned to allow limited free IP phone use on our network because we realize how difficult they are to use with captive portals.
-pc

[pcatiprodotnet]

ammended to above post...

without us having to assign a fixed IP to their phone or know it's mac.

[pcatiprodotnet]

Do we have the ability to set some accounts to route all of that user's traffic through a specified IP (our censoring/porn filter server)?

[pcatiprodotnet]

amend to above...

we only want some, but not all, accounts to pass through our censor server.

[alan]

1) For Passive Login to work, you do need to know the MAC in advance. Passive Login is suitable for client like VoIP which does not have a browser.

2) For content filtering, please check out http://www.patronsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1095 . Note that "IP Block List" can be enabled in a user-by-user basis.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[danielillu]

But remember that MAC - as - username and Passive login don't work if your network is routed because mac changes at every router hop. it only work on bridged networks.