Requirements for use

[Erle]

I need some help to understand if Firstspot will do what we need.

1. Does Firstspot handle multiiple VLANs? When running on a server handling numerous vlans (all different subnets) will firstspot dhcp give correct IP addresses out to the different subnets?

2. In this multiple vlan network (no internal NAT involved, just vlans), can MAC based user tracking work?

3. We need to use open anonymous authentication, where a user tries to connect to the Internet and is automatically redirected to an Acceptable Use Policy page (Firstspot). All he does is click "I accept" and then he can go straight to the Internet, with no other steps to take.

4. A user may be on a wired connection, then leave into an open area and connect via wireless. At that point, he will switch to a different vlan (different subnet) and thus switch his IP address. Will he stay authenticated through Firstspot via his MAC address?

Network layout: All users come through a series of layer 2 switches, through one layer 3 switch port with all vlans tagged to the Firstspot server, which will send traffic out to the Internet via an external firewall.

Thank you very much for your help. This is all vital to our purchase decision, as we need these features.
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- erle5

[alan]

1,2) FirstSpot works in the TCP/IP level. So as long as it can see the traffic, it can provide authentication (captive portal) to the client PC. FirstSpot won't do any special regarding to VLAN tag.

3) Yes, FirstSpot can do that. In that case, you can use Anonymous Option (under Authentication server).

4) Yes. FirstSpot recognize the client by MAC address (i.e. MAC-based Session Handling), and FirstSpot will work with both wired and wireless connection.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[Erle]

OK, but from your answer I still do not know what will happen. It has nothing to do with vlan tagging, these will be untagged packets, but they will be on different subnets. The whole issue is subnetting. Assume a location with multiple class C subnets, with firstspot ataddress 192.168.1.1.

When clients come in on several different subnets, for example, 192.168.2.0, and 192.168.3.0, etc., does the firstspot dhcp server hand out IP addresses correctly, that is, does it hand out addresses on the subnet that the clients are on? So, for example, one client gets 192.168.1.101, and anothers 192.168.2.101, and so on.

Question 2 then is, can firstspot track clients by MAC address when they are on the different subnets, as in question 1 above. In this case, firstspot itself will be on a different subnet. (the clients will not be behind any routers, they will be packets transferred via vlan switching).

Please forgive my specificity, but I just could not be sure from the prior response whether or not Firstspot will work in our multi-subnet environment, and if MAC based tracking will work with subnets.

Thank you.
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- erle5

[alan]

Question 1 : FirstSpot DHCP will only hand out IP in the same subnet as its own Visitor Network Interface IP (default : 10.20.7.x). So unless you use Multiple Network Segments, it won't hand out IP in different subnets.

Question 2 : Well, FirstSpot recognizes the client MAC only. If you use external DHCP server to hand out IP instead, FirstSpot will still work.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~