Feature

The user connects to the Public Spot's WLAN and sends an HTTP request to the Public Spot.

The Public Spot forwards the login procedure's HTTP request to the external hotspot gateway. The external hotspot gateway is located either in a freely accessible network provided by the Public Spot, or its address is included in the list of free hosts.

The Public Spot forwards the MAC address of the requesting Public Spot client to the external gateway. To implement this, navigate to Public-Spot-Module > Page-Table, set the Type to "Redirect" and suffix the URL with the parameter ?myvar=%m.

Example: http://192.168.1.1/?myvar=%m

In this case, myvar is a freely selectable variable. The variable %m is vital here, as the Public Spot replaces this with the client's MAC address when forwarding the request.

Table 1. Variables
Variable	Meaning
%s	SSID name
%v	Source VLAN
%i	Interface (applies to LAN, WLAN, WLC-tunnel)
%t	Routing tag
%m	MAC address of the client
%c	MAC address of the Public Spot gateway
%r	Remote IP (client)
%p	Local IP (Public Spot gateway)
%o	Original URL called by the client
%n	Device name of the Public Spot gateway
%e	Serial number of the Public Spot gateway
%l	Host name of the Public Spot gateway
%0-9	Inserts a single number between 0 and 9
%%	Inserts a single percent character

The hotspot gateway checks the user's credentials and, if applicable, it can contact further systems to charging to credit card, for example.

The hotspot gateway sends an XML file with the user data to the Public Spot's XML interface. The external hotspot gateway contacts the device with the Public Spot XML interface using the URL http://<Device-URL>/xmlauth.

The Public Spot's XML interface analyses this file and initiates the corresponding actions. In the case of a login request, the XML interface inserts the user and the corresponding MAC address into the list of logged-in Public Spot users. In the case of a logout request, the XML interface removes the user from this list again. At the same time, the XML interface confirms the request by sending a corresponding XML file to the hotspot gateway.

In order for the Public Spot to be able to process the instructions in the XML file, a special administrator must be set up on the device who has the function right "Public-Spot -XML-interface". This hotspot gateway logs in to the Public Spot with this admin account.

While the user is logged in to the Public Spot, the XML interface and hotspot gateway can exchange status information about the current session in the form of XML files.

If the user has exhausted his online quota, the hotspot gateway will send a stop command to the XML interface, and then the Public Spot locks further access for that user. The XML interface also confirms that the login is blocked by sending the corresponding XML file to the hotspot gateway.

If the additional use of a RADIUS server is enabled, the hotspot gateway authenticates a user at a RADIUS server.

The Public Spot sends relevant data to the RADIUS server throughout the session, for example to facilitate the accounting of the Public Spot usage. By default, the Public Spot uses its internal RADIUS server for this. If necessary, you can configure the device running the Public Spot to use an external RADIUS server.

Note: Communications between the Public Spot and a hotspot gateway with the use of XML is not standardized. Configure the hotspot gateway according to the instructions in the Commands section in order for the Public Spot and hotspot gateway exchange the XML messages in the required form. XML messages are exchanged invisibly without a graphical user interface. You can use tools such as cURL to test the exchange of messages.