THE NEXT BIG THING: FACEBOOK MEETS WI-FI

In January 2012 we will introduce a brand new hotspot type, called "HOTSPOT FREE SOCIAL" and we are very excited about it :)

With this solution you can give out free internet access to any customer who "LIKEs" your Facebook page. This is a very good tool to promote your business as ONE LIKE will spread out the word to HUNDREDS of other people too (all friends of each customer).

We are also working on an advanced version of Hotspot FREE Social which will request a permission from the user to allow you to post on their walls. Every time the customer wants to use your wi-fi, a customized message will be posted on their walls like "I am using the free Wi-Fi at Joe's place!".

Social marketing is becoming very important to all businesses and by using the combination of FREE Wi-FI and social media you can create the buzz for your business very quickly and effective.

The service will be available in January, 2012, starting from $9.90/month so stay tuned!

VAT CHANGES

From 1st of January, 2012, VAT changes from 25% to 27%. This affects only operators from the EU without a valid VAT ID.

New Forums Launched - Be part of our community!

We have launched a new Forums section on our website at:

http://www.hotspotsystem.com/wififorums/

IMPORTANT: You can use your existing operator username and password to log in to the forums, you DON'T HAVE TO REGISTER.

If you want to introduce yourself to others, or just have a discussion with other operators, you can start using the new forums now.
You can also leave feedbacks, post case studies and get help from our team and hopefully from other operators as well.

With this new addition you can now reach us the following ways:

- Over the phone or on Skype on weekdays during business hours
- Live chat on weekdays during business hours
- Open a New Help Desk ticket (24/7)
- Hotspot System Wi-Fi Hotspot Forums
- Hotspot System on Twitter
- Hotspot System on Facebook
- Hotspot System Blog

"Remember me" option for Wi-Fi Users at Login

We have added a "Remember me" functionality to the hotspot login pages.

You can hide this option from the Control Center which is especially useful when you are using desktop computers in your location and you wish to avoid that one user may log in with the previous user's details. You can turn this option OFF in the Control Center > Edit location > Splash Page Settings > "Display 'Remember Me' checkbox on Login Pages" checkbox.

If you are using custom skins, you need to update hotspotlogin_loginform.inc.html and main_combined.inc.html for combined login pages.

KNOWN ISSUES:
iOS devices and now the latest OSX Lion brings up a login popup safari when users connects to a wi-fi network and the OS cannot ping apple.com, this is how it knows that you don't have a full access to the internet so it brings up the splash page immediately. Unfortunately this behavior has its disadvantages. First, this is not a regular Safari browser and cookies are handled differently so the "remember me" functional will partially work (if you are using iOS devices), or won't work at all (if you are using Lion where the login popup doesn't handle cookies at all). Another thing is that when the user logs in, the popup disappears and the user won't see the popup which we display for the user with session statistics and logout information.

We have a knowledgebase article about this issue here with a "solution".

Notifications for Secondary Operators

Secondary operators can now get Router Alerts and sales notifications in a similar way as main operators. They can turn on/off alerts and set emails for it in the Control Center > Tools > System Settings menu.

Redirection upon successful login - UPDATE

From now on, instead of redirecting the user to a desired landing page, we display a "Redirect" page for 2 seconds, along with the popup which shows important accounting information for the user before we redirect them to the landing page of your choice.

Introducing New Payout Methods: USA ACH and Local Bank Transfer through Payoneer

There are 2 additional payout methods for payments that were collected through our primary processor:

USA ACH through Payoneer (NEW)

Direct deposit to a U.S. Bank account.
Payout Currency: USD
Fees: HotspotSystem transfers your money there for free, but Payoneer deduct some fees: $5 setup fee and $3 fee per transfer

Local Bank Transfer through Payoneer (NEW)

In some countries you can get your money via LOCAL bank transfer. The difference between this method and international wire transfer is that the incoming wire transfer will be from the same country (so there won't be additional intermediate bank charges and your bank fees will be probably lower than if you get an international wire transfer).

Payout Currency: USD
Fees: HotspotSystem transfers your money there for free, but Payoneer deduct some fees: $5.95 or $9.95 per transfer depending on your country

Click here for additional information about supported countries, and How to Apply info

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you already have a Payoneer Preapaid Mastercard you have to contact us to switch to these methods instead.