2 new skins released: Ski and Marina Skins

Click here to view all of our Skin design / Hotspot Splash themes .

Also, we have changed all skins a bit to include the new Adyen logos and updated credit card icons (AMEX with USD, EUR, GBP, DirectEBanking and iDEAL for EUR). If you are using custom skins you can see which file has been changed if you go to your skin, see the templates, if the name is displayed with green color you should revert it or update your skin template.

New Feature: Allowing simultaneous access from more than 1 device

In our system all accesses can only be used from 1 device simultaneously (sharing of account is not allowed), until now.

Now it is possible to create custom packages that can be used up to 5 devices simultaneously. This can be set in Customize > Packages menu.

Please note that this means that a user who buys this package will use up to 5 times more bandwidth AND up to 5 times more data traffic. However this option is not recommended with traffic limit packages, because it can be confusing for users. Let's see an example:

User buys a package for 1 hour valid for 2 devices with 100MB traffic limit. User logs in from the first devices, router will allow 100 MB of usage. After then the user logs in from the second device with the same account, the router will allow 100 MB, because there were no usage on the account yet. If the user stays logged in from both devices, he can use 100+100 MB. However, after downloaded 50 MB, the user logs out from the first device, then logs back in, all usage on the ACCOUNT will be summarized and deducted, so the sum of usage on BOTH DEVICES will be deducted from the original 100MB, so the user won't be able to use another 50MB, because the usage of the second device will also be deducted.

IF YOU ARE USING CUSTOM SKINS...

We are now using a 3-line display if a package is valid for more than 1 device. In this case 'index_package2_table.inc.html' template will be used instead of index_package_table.inc.html when displaying the package. Previous behavior was different, because 'index_package2_table.inc.html' was used if a package used other limits than the location's default limits.

Please revert your files according to that, if you modified those templates.

Under limits, "Valid for x devices" text will be visible. Currently this is displayed in english in every language, please help us with tranlations.

New Payout Schedule

Hope you'll like the next announcement :)

By changing our primary payment processor we are now able to pay you out earlier. From this month we will send payments to our operators after the 15th day of the end of the actual month, not later than the 30th day. This means that you will receive your earnings approximately 1 month earlier than before.

The same is true for Paypal payouts.

So for example your earnings from September will be paid out between 15th-30th of October.

You should have received your august PayPal earnings now. If you didn't, please contact us.

New Feature in the Control Center: Session Report with simultaneous users chart

We would like to introduce a new feature in the Control Center: Session Report.

With this you get a full featured list of the login-logout sessions in your hotspots (radius accounting information). It contains full details, including the NAS Id and the MAC address of the device where the user is connected, the internal IP address and port that the device gave to the user, etc.

All can be exported to a csv file, along with full user information.

You can also have a chart generated which shows the simultaneous sessions based on your criteria, with a comparison chart from a previous period.

Some notes:
- Historical data is available only from february, 2010
- If you filter to a specific device, the real usage on the device can be different as only those devices report usage which have the hotspot part enabled. So if the router or AP gets the internet connection from an other device and acts as a repeater, then the usage of the device is gathered on the parent device (which runs the hotspot service).
- Secondary operators can also access the report if you gave access to user information (but only for those location which they have access of course)

The new report can be accessed in the Control Center > Reports menu.

Let us know, what do you think of this new report, hope you will find it very useful.

New Features: Give a name to your device + device status history

You can now give a name to your devices. This is especially useful when you have lots of routers in one place, those were called WDS #1, WDS #2, etc. previously, but now you can give it a name so you can identify the device much easier.

This can be done from Manage > Locations, you can click on a WDS router in the list and you will reach the device's page. If you have only one router or would like to check out the main router, then click on the name of the location and click on the mac address from the device list.

Once you reach the device's page, you can also see the status history of the device with a nice chart so you will know immediately how many times your router was down and for how long within the previous month, and older downtimes are listed too as well. The history iof devices were recorded from march, 2010 so earlier notifications are not visible.

Primary Payment Processor Changes

We are adding a new payment gateway to the system on the 1st of July (today) to improve our services. The new payment gateway is powered by Adyen, a dutch company formed by the founders of Worldpay.

The new gateway has several new features and enhancements:

- Acceptance of AMEX in USD, EUR and GBP
- Acceptance of Sofort DirectEBanking in EUR for customer from Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland
- Acceptance of additional payment methods coming soon (like Moneybookers or Direct Debit)
- Enhanced payment pages
- More currencies are supported (existing ones plus JPY, SGD, CZK, HKD, MXN, DKK, ILS, PHP, PLN, TWD)

For some currencies Adyen will replace RBS Worldpay as the primary payment gateway. Normally you don't have to do anything, payment pages should work as usual.

However if you set up your router manually (for example Mikrotik routers) you have to add the following in the router:

Allowed host: *.adyen.com
Allowed IPs: 82.199.90.136/29, 82.199.90.160/27, 91.212.42.0/24

We will add additional payment methods to the Adyen gateway in the next few days, we will post the requirements as they are available. We will also post some new details on our website soon.

Should you have any questions or problems, you can contact our Help Desk.

Ubiquiti Pico2HP + Open-Mesh + Hotspot System

Upgrade Pico2HP to Open-Mesh

1. Download openwrt-atheros-ubnt2-pico2-squashfs.bin from http://dev.open-mesh.com/downloads/stable/firmware/

2. Put the Pico2HP in recovery mode (power on hold reset until flashing)

3. Give your machine a static on 192.168.1.10

4. Open a command prompt and type the following command:

tftp -i 192.168.1.20 put openwrt-atheros-ubnt2-pico2-squashfs.bin

5. It takes between 12 and 20 seconds before it tells you it was successfull. When its done unplug it from your machine and plug it into an internet source and wait about 7 1/2 minutes and it will stop flashing. Wait about 15 minutes and it will dial into the dashboard. If you dont want to wait just SSH or Use putty to get into it and use the 0p3nm35h password and just type update.

Hotspot Setup

1. You need to log in to the Open-Mesh Dashboard (you need to create an Open-Mesh network by clicking on "Add Network" link or use your exiting network login and click on "Edit Network").

2. Add your devices to your open-mesh dashboard. Select the "Add/Edit Nodes" button and place each node on the map by clicking and dragging it to the correct location. You will need to fill out the MAC ID of each node (found on the back of each unit if you are using an Open-Mesh hardware). If you are using an Open-Mesh compatible hardware, then you need to find out the MAC address of the hardware (usually can be found on the packaging box).

3. Select HotspotSystem.com as your radius config and set the nasid for your location. Nasid is:

- For your first location, or if you have only one location, the nasid is your operator username.

- If you are using multiple locations the nasid must be set the following way: operatorusername_locationid
(for example: john_2 , if your operator username is john, and you would like to set up location #2)

4. Change timezone to: Europe/London on the dashboard

Optional Step: You can add your own site to the end of the allowed domains list separated with a comma.

5. Press Update Network Settings on the top of the Dashboard.

6. Login to the Control Center and change your Internal Login/Logout URL to open-mesh (Manage Loc.> Modify HotSpot Data > Splash Page Settings

You're done!