[c-nsp] Wireless HotSpot solutions?

[Andre Beck]

Hi,

assume I'm rolling out a number of 123x series Access Points in a
larger building complex to provide Internet access as a typical
WLAN HotSpot. Is there wisdom here on what software solutions exist
to implement the captive portal and (hopefully) alternative WPA auth
for such an application? I haven't found a directly matching Cisco
product, for instance. But I focus on open source / GPL solutions
for Linux anyway. What I have found so far to look promising:

* ChilliSpot
  A complete solution including a captive portal, WPA integration
  and backended by RADIUS. Most problematic about that is it will
  serve only one interface/IP network, while I'm planning to serve
  a number of VLANs with different address ranges. According to
  the mailing list, I might be able to run multiple chilli instances
  in parallel. I'm currently building a lab setup to test this.

* NoCat
  NoCatAuth/NoCatSplash seem to be building blocks of a number of
  HotSpot solution frameworks. I have no experience with them yet,
  it seems they focus on the captive portal aspect only while leaving
  other issues to external components.

I'm open to all kinds of recommendations, preferable to free solutions
running on Linux, but also any other one including commercial and
hardware based systems. Maybe the new lightweight operation mode of the
APs in conjunction with a central wireless controller already provides
all that is necessary to build an authenticated UAM+WPA hotspot
solution? We are currently deploying autonomous APs but upgrading would
still be an option for the final solution.

TIA,
Andre.
-- 
                  The _S_anta _C_laus _O_peration
  or "how to turn a complete illusion into a neverending money source"

-> Andre Beck    +++ ABP-RIPE +++    IBH Prof. Dr. Horn GmbH, Dresden <-