Hello
I have been trying to find a way to collect customer email addresses when customers connect to free wifi.
So basically they would connect without having to specify a password and a web page would then open asking them to agree to the terms and conditions and specify their email address. If they have not connected before it wold then proceed to ask for their name and maybe ask them to tick a box to subscribe to a mailing list.
I did wonder about being able to verify the email address but this may be too difficult and I could instead use some Javacript to just check that the email address is correctly formatted or maybe add some code to check that the domain part exists.
After researching which routers should work with I have purchased the Netgear WNR3500L which was supposed to work with DD-WRT but it only works with a mini version as it is the v2 revision so is not compatible. The cut down version does not include a captive portal.
I have now tried the Tomato firmware and whilst I have enabled the captive portal and it does now show some generic terms and conditions which need to be accepted, it seems that the built in web server cannot run php as if I try to upload a .php file from the web interface it tells me it has an invalid extension and that the extension must be a .html. Then if I try to upload a .html file I get a Server 500 error.
I have spent hours trying to get this to work and don't want to waste money purchasing additional routers if what I want to do is not even possible. I am a programmer (although not with this kind of thing) so should be able to follow instructions if someone could point me in the right direction.
I was hoping to just be able to write a PHP web page to collect the email and add it to a database.
Thanks for any help
Robin
I am trying to get a captive portal setup but I have not seen where to enable it in any of the Tomato firmwares. Am I using the wrong ones (shibby & toastman) or just over looking something?
Thanks in advance!
Hello FiLiNuX
I spent a while trying to get this to work but had to give up. I did eventually find an option in the firmware to enable the captive portal but then found it was very basic and just asked you to agree to some terms and conditions.
I did try to at least edit the page as it was PHP-based so supported code but I then found I couldn't edit it. I seem to remember it was called Shibby at the time when I set this up back in March.
It was partly due to the router I chose as the V2 model of the router had various limitations which were only published on the site after I had purchased it. The so-called open source router from Netgear was more limited that most of the other models.
I believe the customer decided to go with The Cloud in the end as they offer a managed service but obviously you have to pay for that though.
a
I was surprised with how difficult this was to achieve.
Robin
Robin,
Thank you very much for your reply. You don't by any chance remember where the option was do you? I have been over the Shibby & Toastman newest firmwares top to bottom and have not been able to find it.
The more I look the more I think I may have to setup a pfSense box to get this done right.
Hello FiLiNuX
I do seem to remember it wasn't in the first firmware I tried.
I did also try the DD-WRT firmware so it's possible it may have been in that. I'm sorry but I can't remember exactly now as it was back in February and I no longer have the router now.
Hope you locate it!
Robin
Robin,
THANK YOU!! Not just for the information but for taking the time to come back and answer on this post. Things like this help (and people like you) are what drive FOSS software & projects like Tomato forward.
As for the captive portal I am probably just going to re-purpose a small PC with pfSense on it for the end users. I had wanted to just use the existing router as a stand alone but I think I will run it off pfSense as a access point.
Thanks again & have a great day!
FiL