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    Configuring Simple Captive Portal

    Simple Captive Portal enables you to redirect traffic from Wi-Fi clients to a landing page hosted on the router before granting those clients Web access. Unlike Extended Captive Portal, clients using Simple Captive Portal do not require login credentials or a password to access the Web.

    As well, Simple Captive Portal does not require a third-party service like HotSpotSystem. You can also customize the login/splash page and manage the client session length locally without a UAM/RADIUS server. To get you started, Semtech has provided a sample that demonstrates displaying a web page via Simple Captive Portal, which you can download here.

    Clients will log in using one of the following options:

    • The router’s built-in “demo” splash page (shown here)
    • A custom page you have uploaded to the router
    • A custom page hosted on your own server

    Initializing Table Of Contents...

    Before you begin

    • Go to Networking > Zones Settings > LAN Segments and create a LAN Segment for the captive portal traffic. The example below shows “GuestPortal,” with an IP address of 192.168.8.1.

    • Configure a Wi-Fi Access Point on the router for use by captive portal clients. AirLink XR90 Wi-Fi configuration is shown below. See Wi-Fi Configuration for your router’s Wi-Fi configuration instructions.

    • If you want to block certain IP addresses for clients while they are using the captive portal, then you will need to:
      1. Create an address zone for the blocked IP addresses. For more information about Device IP/Network zones, see Device IP/Network Configuration.
      2. Create a firewall rule that blocks traffic to these addresses. For more information about firewalls, see Firewall Configuration on the Captive Portal LAN Segment.

    Once this pre-configuration is done, you can configure the Simple Captive Portal settings at Networking > Simple Captive Portal.

    Simple Captive Portal settings

    To configure Simple Captive Portal, go to Networking > Simple Captive Portal and enable it. The Simple Captive Portal settings are listed and described below.

    SETTING DESCRIPTION
    ENABLE

    Enable or disable the simple captive portal.

    • Off (default)
    • On
    STATE

    Status of the simple captive portal. The status depends on the mode you’ve selected (see MODE below for more information).

    • Disabled
    • Using demo splash page when enabled and operating in Demo mode
    • Using uploaded splash page when enabled and operating in Local mode. This is to let you know that you have successfully deployed the uploaded splash page.
    • Using installed splash page when enabled and using the previously uploaded splash page in Local mode after one or more router reboots. This is to let you know that the router is continuing to use the uploaded splash page. After the router reboots the locally uploaded .tar.gz file is purged from the router’s memory.
    • Using downloaded splash page when enabled and operating in Remote mode
    • Invalid package if the uploaded or downloaded .tar.gz is incorrect and cannot be used, or the upload/download was incomplete.
    MODE

    You can select the following modes for displaying the Simple Captive Portal splash page:

    • Demo: Uses the router’s default built-in splash page. The Demo mode is meant for temporary initial configuration and test purposes. For field deployments, uploading a customized splash page using Local or Remote modes is recommended.
    • Local: Allows you to upload your own captive portal splash page using the local UI. Uploading your own captive portal splash page is not available when configuring Simple Captive Portal using the AirLink OS UI in ALMS.
    • Remote: Allows you to host a splash page on a remote server for the router to download. This is ideal for a fleet deployment, so that multiple devices can download the same splash page.

    When you switch modes, any connected clients will be disconnected from the captive portal.
    LAN SEGMENT

    Enter the LAN Segment you configured earlier. Clients on this LAN Segment will connect to the Wi-Fi Access Point and be directed to the Simple Captive Portal splash page.
    SESSION TIMEOUT

    Enter the maximum time (in seconds) a session can stay open before automatically ending.

    • 30 min (1800 s) is the default, and there is no upper limit. 30 seconds is the minimum session length, and values below 30 seconds will result in a Session Timeout of 30 seconds.
    UPLOAD SPLASH PAGE

    This button appears in Local mode. Click to upload your splash page file in tar.gz format. For more information, see Configuring a Custom Splash Page
    SPLASH PAGE SERVER Appears in Remote mode. Enter the IP address or FQDN of the server hosting your splash page files.
    SPLASH PAGE FILENAME Appears in Remote mode. Enter the filename of the tar.gz file containing your splash page files.
    SERVER INTERVAL Appears in Remote mode. Enter the interval at which the router downloads the splash page from the remote server (the range is 30 to 10,000,000 minutes).
    USER Appears in Remote mode. Enter the user name to access the remote server, if required.
    PASSWORD Appears in Remote mode. Enter the password to access the remote server, if required.

    Configuring a Custom Splash Page

    As noted above, in Local or Remote mode, you can upload or host your splash page file in tar.gz format (a tool such as 7-Zip can help you create .tar and .tar.gz files). This splash page can be customized with your own graphics, text, and so on.

    The .tar.gz file must contain a root folder named webportal that contains the rest of your files (.png or .jpg image files, .css and others). The webportal folder must also contain a login.htm file that allows clients to send a POST to <server>/accept.

    Semtech does not recommend referencing external content in the portal, via DNS in particular. All images, icons, xml/css files and other content used by the portal must be stored in the webportal folder.

    If the uploaded file cannot be used (as indicated by the Invalid package status), the last valid splash page set will be used. For example, when changing Mode from Demo to Local or Remote and the upload is not successful or the files are incorrect, the portal will still use the Demo page. If a custom set is in use and changing to a new set fails, the previous custom set will be used until a new set successfully uploads.

    Monitoring Simple Captive Portal Activity

    In the AUTHENTICATED CLIENTS table, you can view information about devices (LAN IP Address, device MAC address and Session Expiry time) that have connected to the WAN using the Simple Captive Portal.

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