Need advise on setting up wireless hotspot you can control who gets on.

Actually, this should do the trick:
http://www.netcomm.com.au/hospitality/IAC4500.php

It's an access controller specifically designed for the hospitality industry. You can use it with wired access and/or wireless APs.

I will look into it and get back with you.  Thank you for your quick response

There is one system I have had minimal exposure to. Essentially its linux on a cd, you load it into a spare computer, it boots directly from the cd, and can be configured virtually however you like. You can set up where you want users to hit, eg when they access the web they hit a login page, login to the 'firewall' and away they go, you have a complete overview and controol of every user.

Better still it's free.

I am at work at the moment but will try to dig out the information for you and post back.

See this previous discussion that I was involved in there were a significant number of useful answers on there. also the software to which I was hinting in my previous post was publicip which can be found at

http://www.publicip.net/

I hope that this helps you, please feel free to post back and I will do my best to answer any further questions you may have.

Regards, Rich

I have also just come across another question on EE, which is of a similar nature to this one. You may find it beneficial to monitor both threads, and possibly even participate in both threads.

Rich

wally2k7 do you have the tread link to the similar question so I can look at it also....  I will look into the publicip also.  My biggest concern is that it is stable and low maintenance so I don't get calls every week from the hotel saying its not working correctly.   Can you comment on that?

My bad, I had intended to leave you a link at the time of posting, clearly I failed in that respect.

the discussion in which I was participating and has been answered can be found here:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22590658/Cafe-style-Access-Point.html

The discussion which is still cureently in progress and may be of interest can be found here.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22983722/Need-advise-on-setting-up-wireless-hotspot-you-can-control-who-gets-on.html

Thank you very much wally2k7 lots of information to go over.  On a funny note the bottom link that you posted is actually this tread :)  I will get back with you.

I can't comment on the reliability of the zone control system, having not used it personally it would be unfair of me to comment on it's reliability. However, I have not heard any bad things about it, which is a positive sign.

The only problems I can forsee, are that it is linux, whilst this is not a problem many people would struggle purely from the fact "it's not windows", and so may require a degree of user training!!

I'm not sure, however at the extreme cost of free I can say that it may well be worth trying it out for a week or so, setting up a demonstration from a laptop with 2 nics, and showing them to your clients allowing them to see just how easy to use the system is, and just how much control they have. It can all run alongside all there existing infrastructure etc.

On paper I would say this is a good System.

haha, DOH!!, yeah should have thought about that!!, never mind, whats a little stupidity amongst experts, DOH!! The link i meant to send was this one.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22983922/Wireless-router-setup-with-proxy-like-wifi-spots-at-coffee-shops.html

hopefully this is the right link now.

Thanks again, Rich