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boomdv
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What external radius you use? Why?

Sat Jan 15, 2011 9:55 am

I look for some external radius for mikrotik that easy for use and config and support many site. Please suggesst to me.

Thanks.
 
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nest
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:44 pm

We use UserManager. Why? Simple to use and it works. Oh, and free.
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:54 pm

FreeRADIUS. Does anything RADIUS related you could think of, but that flexibility can make it harder to use.
 
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nest
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:12 pm

fewi - re FreeRadius, good recommendation. But it does need a lot of time and work to make a usable front end for billing and user control. OK for geeks or those on a big budget to pay for a web developer! :-) Anyone using DaloRadius?
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:53 pm

Go with Radiusmanager.
It uses freeradius and has a good web frontend. When you buy the license they can install you for free (1 time).
Works fine and support is really fast and good.
 
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nest
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:05 pm

Radius Manager - We bought the full license, installation was very easy, so we didn't need any help there. But we can't use it as it does not support the Hotspot charging model used by every Hotspot provider we have knowledge of around here. Radius manager uses two possible systems and neither is usable. User manager from MT however works with exactly the same charging system as every other Hotspot, so unless Radius manager implements the "time since first login" charging method, we will carry on using UM.

I am about to perform a test install of DaloRadius to see how well that works as documentation is very limited.
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:43 am

What you need to do that you cant with radiusmanager?
 
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nest
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:22 am

Manage Wireless Hotspot users! :-)

If you connect to a wireless Hotspot and buy time, let's say one hour, then as soon as you connect for the first time and enter your password, the clock starts. If you spend 5 minutes online, with UM, the clock is still running. After one hour, your "one hour" of purchased time is finished. With Radius manager you still have 55 minutes left. That is the first problem.

If you buy one day, or in other words, 24 hours, you do not always get 24 hours because if you buy your "24 hours" at 23:55, you only get 5 minutes, because Radius manager checks at midnight, and disconnects you as you are now in the next day.

Both these two types of time period billing (online time and time period) are not possible for Hotspot.

Radius Manager is a good software system for customers who pay for a long term service, who pay for fixed term contracts (perhaps 30 days or more) as if they were fixed connections. But for Hotspot users, who visit a cafe for maybe just one hour, or a local area with our hotspot for a few hours, these two business models for time accounting are impossible for us to use. Therefore as UM uses this sensible approach, of time management, we stick with UM.

If we switch to one or both of the two RadiusManager timer models, we will either lose a lot of customers very fast and make them very angry (especially those that pay for a day close to midnight) or we have customers who pay for one hour and only use it for a few minutes every day for many weeks. So we then lose a lot of money. :-(
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:46 am

I dont know this related to 23:55.. And midnight reset, but 1 hour from now to 1 hour i think is possible if you configure it. Tomorrow I will see this, but I think is possible.
 
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nest
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:55 am

Create one hour time account, connect for 5 minutes, disconnect and you will find that 3-4 hours later you can still connect. If it is a one hour account, then after one hour, it should cancel the credit and not allow connection.

Create a one day time account, then at 23:59, login with your "one day" credit and try to connect the "next day" a few minutes later, say at 00:05. I found I could not and customer screen says no credit left! So customer who paid for 24 hours time at 23:55, only gets 5 minutes.

If you find I am wrong, then please tell me with what you find with your system! :-)
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:23 am

Interesting info, I intended to use Radius Manager, but now I'm not so sure that i will.
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:28 am

If you want to try a fully licensed system, I am happy to give you login details for our test system where you can add your own AP and do your own tests. Contact me off-list (details below). I am also interested to see what Martín finds with his own tests. If I am wrong, I will happily test mine again! :-)
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:58 am

Hi nest!

Mission acomplished.

I created a 15 minutes user at 10:20h and used it for 2 minutes (then logout with http://ip/logout)

Radiusmanager shows 13 minutes left, as you said, but now (10:43) I can't enter the hotspot and I get the error: "Prepaid card is expired!"

To configure users like this with RadiusManager you need to:

- Service>new service
  • service name bla bla
    Enable service marked
    Prepaid card or IAS marked
    Limit expiration marked
    Limit online time marked
    Data rates DL/UL depending on your needs
    You can add down or up MB quotas if you like.. I set 0 for no limit..
    All other things by default.
- Card system>Generate cards
  • Classic prepaid
    Quantity: 2000 or what you need
    Card value: the USD, euro or whatever
    Valid till: You can set one year or something like that. All these generated cards will expire this day if not used
    Associated service: Select "bla bla" created service
    Online time limit: Select 1 hour
    Expiration: CALCULATED FROM CARD ACTIVATION
    Available time from card activation: 1 hour TOO.
    "Generate cards" and this is all.


I bet you that you can do it with 24 hours too.

Then... I solved your 2 problems with radiusmanager.

I use now 3.8 version, but this was the same in earlyer versions..
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Tue Jan 18, 2011 7:47 pm

fewi - re FreeRadius, good recommendation. But it does need a lot of time and work to make a usable front end for billing and user control. OK for geeks or those on a big budget to pay for a web developer! :-) Anyone using DaloRadius?
I use FreeRADIUS/daloradius frontend. I dont bill for services, but daloradius makes management simple. Also use some triggers to update information in RADIUS from external sources. IE: Provisioning hardware for the VPN connections.

FreeRADIUS just works.... Plain and simple...
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:49 am

Martín

As previously mentioned, we use Paypal with self signup not generated cards. Your suggestions are welcome and I have re-examined our test setup.

I have looked at your example, but for our use, we have to use Price Definition part, it is here that we have some problems. It will need more testing as expiration date unit is not in minutes or hours, only days! This is where we have a problem. 'Online time' is also no good for our setup as it only decrements while the user is connected. So, I still do not see how it is possible to limit account time to one hour.
If you have some spare time, please test some more, I will only have free time next week.
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:08 am

Also if you need something different, you can tell and if its possible they implement this in next release.. Viktor makes a good job xP
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:03 pm

Viktor makes a good job
I have told him, numerous times. I think there is a language problem as all I get is a repeat of what the software already does but no confirmation of an understanding of our problem, or indication of any possible future change! :D

I also know of two other possible customers who have asked him the same question about this timer 'problem' and they also got the same evasive reply.

I do agree his support is very good and fast. He is always quick to reply and to offer help. So, if Viktor were to understand our problem, maybe one day he will update the system and we will possibly use his system again! :-) But until then..... it's time to evaluate daloradius.
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:22 pm

If you want to try a fully licensed system, I am happy to give you login details for our test system where you can add your own AP and do your own tests. Contact me off-list (details below). I am also interested to see what Martín finds with his own tests. If I am wrong, I will happily test mine again! :-)
Thank you very much for your offer. I found out that MikroTik User Manager only seems to work with MikroTik Routers, so I would be very appreciated for a test account. :D
 
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Re: What external radius you use? Why?

Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:07 am

I guess the main reason for me (or, rather, my employer) to use something like FreeRADIUS or a proprietary solution such as A10 IdSentries (expensive, but wonderful to work with) is that it ties into other systems. Need to tie into AD without shoving an IAS shim in the middle? Done. Need to tie into LDAP straight up? Done. Need to tie into whatever database can speak SQL in a non-proprietary and many proprietary protocols? Done.

I just can't justify converting the user database into a format dictated by a vendor when lots of other systems need to access that user database. I have at least four ordering systems creating user accounts - it is the user database that needs to be open itself, not the authentication system. The primary business driver is selling accounts and storing their credentials and properties, not the system doing the authentication.

Additionally, something that can load arbitrary user databases and map them to arbitrary RADIUS attributes enables you to swap out the NAS. Love Mikrotik - cannot be married to it for life. Pushed in a corner is never good. That said, Mikrotik are so much better at that I find it to be my primary reason for choosing that router platform.

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