New Feature in Control Center: Location Groups

There is a new feautre in the Control Center, called Location Groups (can be found under 'Manage' menu). The menu is enabled only If you have more than 2 locations.

You can group locations to see statistics for the group. For example you have 3 locations in City 1, four locations in City 2. You can create a City 1 Group, and you can select the group in the Purchase Report to see sales stats for those locations groupped together.

Furthermore you can define the group as a 'Roaming Group', which means that people can use their account in all of the locations in the group (but only those who bought an access within one of the locations in the group). An example: let's say you have a campground chain with 10 campgrounds and you have a hotel chain with 4 hotels. But you don't want to enable global roaming because the prices are different in the hotels, so you don't want that people who bought an access in a campground can use the account in the hotels. So you can define two roaming groups so people can only roam within the group.

The roaming can also be disabled for a specific location, let's say you have a 5 start hotel where you only want to allow internet for people who bought the access there. Then you can disable roaming (isolate the location), in Manage > Locations > click on name > Modify Hotspot Data > Default Limits > Enable roaming. If the location is part of a roaming location group, this will override the roaming settings for that specific location and roaming will not be allowed there.

Hotspot FREE with SMS password delivery

Hotspot FREE users now can now use a new way to give access to their customers. Voucher codes can now be sent to the user's mobile phones instead of givint the voucher to them personally.

This is an ideal solution if you want to authenticate your users, but you cannot give vouchers to them (there is no reception for example).

In some countries (Italy and France) the law requires to authenticate all users in public hotspots.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Instead of asking the user to enter a voucher code on your WI-Fi Splash page, they are required to enter a phone number. We send them the voucher code via SMS, then they can log in to the hotspot.
You can restrict the countries if you only want to have users from a specific country. You can also set a time interval restriction, within this interval users can only request one voucher code to the same phone number.


HOW MUCH DOES THE SERVICE COST?

The costs of the SMS delivery is included in the Hotspot FREE package, there are no extra fees.
The subscription fees are depending on the number of Voucher codes that your users activate in a month.

You can find detailed pricing here (Under Pricing)


HOW CAN I SUBSCRIBE?

You just have to create a new Hotspot FREE location, then turn on the SMS to Voucher module in the Control Center > Manage > Locations > Click on name > Modify Hotspot > Splash Page Settings.
If you already have a Hotspot FREE location which you want to work that way, you have to set the option in the same menu.


NOTE: If you are using a custom Skin, then you may need to update sms.inc.html. To do so, just create a new Skin based on the same skin as you have created your custom skin, copy the code from sms.inc.html and paste it to your custom skin's sms.inc.html .

New Features in the Control Center

We are working hard to give you new features, enhancements based on your feedbacks. Some of the latest improvements are:

- Voucher codes are now working without activation. This means that users can log in directly with a voucher code (as a username and password) without requiring them to activate it first. This makes the process much easier and less confusing. When they enter the code into the login box, the voucher is activating automatically and the user will be logged in without any interruption.

You can turn off the Voucher module if you want and tell your users to log in as a user with valid access. However the voucher box is still good because people will know that they can get a voucher, and some people may find it easier to enter the voucher code into the voucher activation box.

- Online help in the Control Center: when you see dotted lines, just leave your mouse over the line for a few moments, then a popup will appear with detailed help.

- Help Desk is now available from the Control Center. You can send us a support ticket directly from the Control Center. You can find the option in the Tools menu.

SEND US YOUR IDEAS

Do you have an idea or suggestion about how can we improve our service?

You can send your ideas here (after logging in to the Help Desk with your operator Username and password).

Other users will see and comment your ideas and vote on them!

SMS Authentication in your Hotspot

Today we released the SMS Authentication option.

When turned ON, users have to enter a phone number after they clicked on a package or entered a voucher code on the splash page. The system sends a 4 digit code which has to be entered back for verification. If verification was successful, the process continues as before (user can register an account or login in case of online payments OR activate the voucher). You can also restrict where the SMS can be sent (for example to italian phones only). That way only customers with a valid italian phone number can purchase access online by credit card or paypal for example.

The SMS authentication can be used for the following purposes:

- In some countries (f.e. Pisanu Law in Italy) user identification is necessary in public hotspots

- You can turn this option ON if you want to reduce the abuse of the system

- You can collect phone numbers and send information, advertisements, etc. to those phone numbers (especially useful in free hotspots). WARNING: You have to replace the NOTE text and tell users that they will get SMS messages if you want to use their phone numbers for this purpose.

You can turn this option ON in the Control Center > Manage > Locations > click on name > Modify Hotspot Data > Splash Page Settings.

COMING SOON: Voucher codes via SMS (You don't have to give the voucher code to the user personally, they can get a code via SMS)

NOTE: If you're using a custom Skin, the sms part may appear wrong. For this to be fixed you can create a new Skin (based on the same layout as your existing custom skin), copy the contents of sms.inc.html and paste it to your existing skin's sms.inc.html.

Special Ubiquiti AirOS Firmware with embedded Hotspot Portal

We have released a new firmware for Ubiquiti 802.11 access points which is one of the most stable solutions to date.

Now you can use your Ubiquiti AP as not just an AP which has to be connected to a Hotspotsystem supported device, you can use it as a real Hotspot AP! The best thing is that you can keep the original functionality of your APs as this firmware was built from the original AirOS, but we have added a very important functionality, the Hotspot Portal!

The installation is super simple, you just have to upgrade the firmware (for free as there are no license fees) and change your operator username, all other settings are built-in!

You can find a detailed guide here!

Currently the WDS functionality is in beta phase.

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.