Wi-Fi-Free-For-All

April 8, 2009 2:37 PM

(2 part question) I have an open wifi router which I am happy for neighbours and passers-by to connect to. Is there a piece of software out there (for the mac) that will tell me when people connect to my router? and would there be a way of redirecting people to a landing page when they connect to my router?
posted by nam3d to technology (5 answers total)

If you have a compatible router, you may be able to install DD-WRT on it and have these features.

The Fonera routers also have some of the features you want. They def. let you see who's using them, and they give you some control over the content on the landing page.
posted by zippy at 2:44 PM on April 8, 2009

DD-WRT can be configured to do the landing page bit for a roll-your-own hotspot page. Not sure about getting pinged when someone joins. If you have a box that you can run arpwatch on, you can write some little script that will notify whenever a new MAC is seen on the network.
posted by jquinby at 2:44 PM on April 8, 2009

bah, a better arpwatch description.
posted by jquinby at 2:46 PM on April 8, 2009

Generically what you're trying to do is called a captive portal. The most common way to accomplish this is to replace the OS of the router but depending on the make & model there are also games you can play with DHCP & DNS to redirect traffic to a web server running the captive portal application located on your Mac, which would coordinate handing out IPs and let you control who's allowed to login if you wanted to. We'd need to know the brand of the router to make specific recommendations on what software to use & how to install it.
posted by scalefree at 3:47 PM on April 8, 2009

Tangentially - sharing your bandwidth is laudable, but may violate your ISPs TOS/AUP. Comcast, for example, has the following item in their TOS saying that subscribers may not

...resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly. The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business enterprise or purpose (whether or not for profit);

Just be vigilant for abuse - I'm betting you'd only make the radar if someone was using your connection to relay spam or do other nastiness online.
posted by jquinby at 5:50 PM on April 8, 2009