FirstSpot® README (v8.1.101 or above)

Minimum Requirements
•	For 32 bit Windows : Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
•	For 64 bit Windows : Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1, Windows 10*, Windows Server 2016*

* including UEFI Secure Boot support (optional)

We support the latest Windows version available through Windows Update

§	Optional : 
	For ODBC Authentication Mode:
1)	MySQL 5.1.x using ODBC 5.1.5 (Note that the File DSN generated by ODBC Data Source Administrator may have the “PASSWORD” field missing. We provide a sample MySQL dsn file named mysql.dsn which you can edit using Notepad), or 
2)	SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2012

•	One thing to note is that if you are running FirstSpot on 64bit version of Windows, make sure you install 32bit version of the ODBC driver.

	For RADIUS Authentication Mode:
Network Policy Server (NPS) for Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012, FreeRADIUS (Authentication and Accounting only)

§	Memory - refer to your Windows version minimum memory requirement
§	35MB hard disk space for FirstSpot® program
§	2 network cards (or 1 network card plus the Microsoft Loopback Adapter for testing)

Pre-installation preparation
As FirstSpot® works in the low-level network driver layer, it can be sensitive with your existing Windows configuration. Please aware of the followings:

1) As our FirstHop driver is binded to the network card that connects to Wi-Fi Hotspot side (we call it Visitor Network Interface), it is sometimes quite sensitive to the network properties there. Strictly speaking, only “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” is needed.

The below protocols are not necessary for FirstSpot® to function but should work with FirstSpot®:
•	Client for Microsoft Networks
•	File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks

The below protocols are known to have issues with FirstSpot®. Please remove them (or uncheck them):
•	QoS Packet Scheduler
•	Network Load Balancing
•	NetBEUI Protocol
•	HP Network Configuration Driver

2) Windows components requirements
Windows service “Routing and Remote Access” should come with standard Windows installation by default. If by any reason “Routing and Remote Access” is not installed, please install it back before trying to setup FirstSpot®. Note that “Routing and Remote Access” Status should be “not started” and Startup Type should be “manual” before you attempt to start FirstSpot®.

Also, we recommend that you disable the following Windows services:
i) Windows Firewall
ii) DHCP Server
iii) DNS Server
iv) IIS Admin Service
v) World Wide Web Publishing Service

After the pre-installation steps, run setup to install FirstSpot®

Other issues
1)	As FirstSpot® operation is time-sensitive, we recommend that you do not use FirstSpot® with a low-speed CPU. We recommend that the CPU speed be a minimum of Pentium 4 level.

2)	FirstSpot® installation program will bind our FirstHop NDIS filter driver to all network cards temporary during the installation (which will cause the network to disconnect). Therefore, do not attempt to run FirstSpot® setup from a shared network drive. Copy all of the setup files to the local hard disk first before running the FirstSpot® setup program.

3)	PPPoE (i.e. ADSL line, or Broadband Dial-up line) – if you are using PPPoE Internet connection, we recommend you to put a router between FirstSpot® and ADSL modem. Like:

FirstSpot® -> Router (that supports PPPoE client) -> ADSL Modem

FirstSpot® does not work with Windows PPPoE connection client. 

4)	Our FirstHop network driver is not compatible with the Microsoft Loopback Adapter. Please do not select the Microsoft Loopback Adapter as the Visitor Network Interface during the installation. However, for testing only, the Microsoft Loopback Adapter should work as the Internet Network Interface. 

5)	Starting from FirstSpot® v8, you can configure FirstSpot to start automatically when Windows start under Configuration Manager -> Dispatcher (Main)

If you want to setup the auto-start manually, make sure you only set the PatronSoft FirstSpot Dispatcher service as automatic startup in the Windows Services Console. Note that all other services will be started by the PatronSoft FirstSpot Dispatcher (except Apache).

If you want to start FirstSpot® in the command line, please use (note that the below net start command will return quite quickly even though FirstSpot® is not completely started):

net start "PatronSoft FirstSpot Dispatcher"

Similarly, you can stop FirstSpot® in the command line using:

net stop "PatronSoft FirstSpot Dispatcher"

6)	FirstSpot® will turn off all “offloading” (also known as “hardware checksum”) functions for the network adapter during setup. Offloading is a feature supported by some network cards (e.g. Intel PRO Adapter, Broadcom), which moves some network driver functions (e.g. TCP/IP checksum) from network driver level to the hardware level. As FirstHop drivers will override many networking functions, offloading will make FirstSpot® function incorrectly. A typical symptom includes client device not being able to see the “redirected” login page (but the client device can ping the PC running FirstSpot®, and the client can access sites that defined in Exception Free Websites IP address, e.g. patronsoft.com). You can usually disable offloading in at : network adapter’s Properties -> General tab -> click Configure -> Advanced tab.

Occasionally, the driver will fail to disable offloading by itself. In that case, you need to set the “DisableTaskOffload” parameter to 1 in Windows Registry. Refer to Microsoft documentation for the exact instruction on setting this parameter.

Please restart Windows after you make the change.

7)	In some rare circumstances, you will receive the error “Visitor/Private network interface card is disconnected” when you try to start FirstSpot® even though you have already connected the cable to that particular network card. This is caused by Windows incorrectly reporting the status of the network adapter to FirstSpot®. To force FirstSpot® to start regardless, insert _allow_privateNIC_disconnect=true in the [misc] section of the config.ini file. Please note that you should only use this parameter as a last resort since FirstSpot® may not operate correctly if you force it to start without the proper connection.

You can also use _allow_privateNIC_disconnect=true to bypass the error “Visitor/Private Network Interface Media Connect Status: UNKNOWN”. Keep in mind that this error represents that there is an abnormal situation in your network configuration (e.g. the network driver is not up-to-date or is not installed correctly, Windows network setting is corrupted, etc…). Even though you can bypass this error and force FirstSpot® to start, FirstSpot® may not work correctly.  The key point here is that you should find out the root cause of the problem rather than just force FirstSpot® to bypass this error. (Similarly, you can use _allow_publicNIC_disconnect=true to bypass the error “Internet/Public Network Interface Media Connect Status: UNKNOWN”)

8)	The “Real IP Address Mapping” feature is not supported when FirstSpot NAT is enabled.

9)	If you want to change the Visitor Network Interface (formerly called Private Network Interface) or Internet Network Interface (formerly called Public Network Interface) setting after FirstSpot® is installed, please use the following steps:
a.	For Visitor Network Interface, change the PrivateNIC parameter under [gateway] section within the file config.ini to the new network adapter. Note that the parameter will use the name specified in the “Network Connections” folder. Also, you need to bind the “PatronSoft FirstHop Driver” to the PrivateNIC only. (Just go to the Properties windows for the network adapter, click the check box of  “PatronSoft FirstSpot Driver” for the new PrivateNIC and make sure for all other network cards the check box for “PatronSoft FirstSpot Driver” is not selected.) Then reboot Windows.
b.	For Internet Network Interface, change the PublicNIC parameter under [gateway] section within the file config.ini to the new network adapter. Note that the parameter will use the name specified in the “Network Connections” folder. Then restart FirstSpot®.

10)	If you encounter difficulty in starting Windows after installing FirstSpot®, enter Safe Mode to rename the file firsthop.sys for 32bit Windows (or firsthop64.sys for 64bit Windows) under \windows\system32\drivers directory to something else and then restart Windows.

11)	The following browsers have been confirmed to work with FirstSpot® end-user pages (e.g. login page, InfoBox) 
•	IE11, Edge
•	Mozilla Firefox
•	Google Chrome (both PC and Android)
•	Mac OS X Safari
•	iOS Safari  (iPhone and iPad)

To access Configuration Manager, please use IE, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome only. The minimum resolution to access Configuration Manager is 1024x768.

We welcome any feedback and bug reports. Please send your feedback to firstspot@patronsoft.com or post it at http://patronsoft.com/forum.

FirstSpot is a registered trademark of PATRONSOFT LIMITED. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Date : August 29, 2017