Version 5 ?

[dracomaster]

Is there any hints as to some of the added features in Ver 6 yet?

[alan]

Not much we can say at this point regarding v6, except that we are working hard on it...

Any suggestion for your side so that we can consider?
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[dracomaster]

1. Real Time Monitoring would be awesome.
See how much bandwidth each user is consuming as well as a total bandwidth usage. With both Up and Down sensors.

2. Auto emailing users when their time is nearly up and for other reasons such as scheduled server down time etc...

3. I know this is a bit out of the scope of firstspot, but a Access Point ping monitor and alerter would VERY beneficial.

4. Better support for managing via Pocket PC.

5. Built in support for redundant network connectivity (This one is a bit far fetched.)

6. Ability to view/hide users passwords IN the management console.

... I'll be back to add more as I think of them....

[dracomaster]

I thought of another one...

7. Right now, say if the internet goes out, all customers get is a blank "page can not be found" screen. Wouldn't it be nice if instead they get a customizable error page, or maybe when doing some maintenance on the network or, if internet is expected to be down, the users could still get the login screen but with a live ticker or "status light" reflecting the current server/internet status.

8. Automatic eMailed daily summary. At a managers specified time, firstspot emails all listed managers a daily summary of all system events. User signups, Plan purchases, bandwidth usage (by user and total) access point down times (can be incorporated with my other idea about a ping monitor.) system changes, as well as several other reporting options available to the manager to be enable or disabled.

9. More payment gateway options. I hear google has been taking businesses by storm.

10. Take advantage of paypal's "Payments Pro" option, so customers don't have to deal with paypal's vanilla payment page.

11. Another ap monitoring possibility would be to have firstspot collect SNMP data from access points.

12. Support for a more dynamic bandwidth throttle. maybe a global option or a per plan option, that at specific times or days of the week or when a certain amount of people are logged in, the throttle can be doubled, tripled, halfed or quartered.

I'll think of more...

[alan]

Here is our feedback (I re-number your second list):

1) FirstSpot v5 already added (compared to v4) Data Transfer (both upload and download) in the Status page of Configuration Manager

2) will investigate

3) While this is technically possible, it is really out of the scope of FirstSpot. FirstSpot design is access medium neutral. Also, you can easily use a third-party tools to do that.

4) will investigate

5) We already support Failover in v5. We are planning to add Load Balancing in the future

6) will investigate

7) will investigate

8) will investigate

9) We already added Google Checkout in the new v5

10) will investigate

11) see point 3

12) Can you check out "Restricted Account" in v5?

BTW, really appreciate your feedback. Note that one of the most important criteria for us to add feature is whether it is demanded by substantial (potential) customers, so more feedback (voting?) is welcome. Also, I want to stress that v6 is in very early stage and we have no release schedule.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[Edege]

2. Auto emailing users when their time is nearly up and for other reasons such as scheduled server down time etc...
2.a Would Very nice, and if they do forget there account info they can retrieve it Via Email, (Alittle better user Account info for Admin's like Name,phone,address,email p.o. box,Mac etc.."instead of using a different CMS for this)

6. Ability to view/hide users passwords IN the management console.
6.b (again a better CMS for admin's)

7. Right now, say if the internet goes out, all customers get is a blank "page can not be found" screen. Wouldn't it be nice if instead they get a customizable error page, or maybe when doing some maintenance on the network or, if internet is expected to be down, the users could still get the login screen but with a live ticker or "status light" reflecting the current server/internet status.
7.b ( Would be nice but i think it would need to ping something outside of the Network in order for this to work like pinging www.yahoo.com every 2-5 mins but could be nice)(but if u have different DNS setting with in FS might stop that from working)

8. Automatic eMailed daily summary. At a managers specified time, firstspot emails all listed managers a daily summary of all system events. User signups, Plan purchases, bandwidth usage (by user and total) access point down times (can be incorporated with my other idea about a ping monitor.) system changes, as well as several other reporting options available to the manager to be enable or disabled.
8.b (this might be a good idea i have must of my Server under SMNP and if a server goes down or etc.. it Sends me a SMS Via Cell phone text message telling what is down on the server or etc..)

10. Take advantage of paypal's "Payments Pro" option, so customers don't have to deal with paypal's vanilla payment page.
10.b (Would help, so we can use our own webpage or Build in ones)

[dracomaster]

Well I've downloaded the newest version and I've installed it on server 2003, so far I'm pretty impressed, only one thing that slightly concerns me: Where is the authenticate user by MAC address option? I understand there is MAC Whitelist filter, but I still want to control bandwidth, quota and payments, without requireing a few of my LONG TIME customers to sign-in. This is not a make or break problem, just a concern.

[alan]

Go to Users -> click Add (or Edit) -> select "Use MAC as username"
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[dracomaster]

12:) I was thinking about an option that affected accounts globally. Somthing that would let me say:

"Purchase these specific plans, and you get twice the speed between the hours of 8PM-6AM."

OR

"Purchase these specific plans, and you get unlimited quota between the hours of 8PM-6AM."

[alan]

12) You can tie the Restricted Account user attribute to Plan as usual. In that case, when you create an account using this Plan (which is really a template of user attributes), it will have the Restricted Account attribute.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[dracomaster]

so with the restricted account, where do you go to set time and date and quota settings?

[alan]

12) Just set time/date/quota as usual. Once the limit is reached, instead of logging out, user can still access the Internet but with global "bandwidth throttling" imposed.

Refer the v5 firstspot_guide.pdf -> chapter 3 -> User section for more detailed explanation.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[dracomaster]

That's not what I'm talking about. Think of it like a cell phone. My cell phone provider says that during nights I can talk as much as I want, but it won't go against my airtime credits.

Basically I wan't to create a small incentive for people who want to access off peak time.

[alan]

12) Okay, currently Restricted Account work with attributes airtime credit/quota but not Recurring. So this might not exactly suits your need.

We need to investigate how to incorporate your model into existing FirstSpot architecture.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[dracomaster]

So then...


"12) will investigate"?