Hi all,
There's been a lot of talk over using the WGR614L as a hotspot device and while using a guest SSID is sufficient for most setups, I'm sure that some of you are look for a deeper breathed solution.
Sputnik (sputnik.com) offers a free service called SputnikNet Express that I've gotten to work with Netgear open source router. SputnikNet Express uses a DDWRT build to connect to your account with them.
With SputnikNet Express installed on your WGR614L, you can:
- Brand a login page (while limited, it's decent for most rollouts)
- Block private nets
- View some very basic usage reports
- Auto-authenticate up to 5 devices using MAC addresses such as Wi-Fi printers, employee laptops, etc.
- Run local ads on your login page (I'm not sure if you get to keep revenue from ads or not?)
- Theme your login page with popular themes like Google Local, MSN, Yahoo! Local.
To Install SputnikNet Express:
- Download the DDWRT firmware
- Flash your WGR614L with the firmware using the GUI flash interface
- Login to the router and hit up the services page
- Under the service page, select the Hotspot tab
- Enable SputnikNet express and put in the account domain Sputnik gives you when you sign up
- Wait for your router to restart then open a new browser page
- You should be redirected to the setup page where you input your email address, etc. Do that.
- You'll receive an email with an account login so that you can manage the router remotely. You can change the SSID, the content on your login page, add devices to auto-authenticate and a few other things.
SputnikNet Express doesn't do much fancy and you're limited on what you can do with branding, authenticating and limiting customers, there's no promotion, etc. but it's a good start and most of all fun to mess around with.
Have a great weekend.
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