Some questions relating to Mikrotik Hotspot

Hello gentlemen,

I’ve just purchased my first Mikrotik product (RB951G-2HnD) and I am in absolute awe of how epic it is. I can’t believe I subjected myself to the utter crap out there.

I’m looking to set up a paid internet hotspot. I understand that this functionality is provided by RouterOS, however I’d like to take things to the next level.

  1. First, I’d like to use an external RADIUS server to manage AAA. I assume that FreeRADIUS is the standard here.

  2. In terms of authentication, I’m not 100% keen on the standard hotspot login page. Rather than allowing an open connection and presenting a login page, I’d like for the authentication to happen before the wireless connection is established. I imagine this would involve securing the network and then matching a username/password or pre-shared key against the RADIUS server. Is this possible?

  3. What kind of accounting information does the RouterBOARD send to RADIUS?

  4. I’m thinking of writing a Ruby on Rails application to interface with the RADIUS server and provide a management portal for users to pay for their accounts, upgrade subscriptions, view usage history etc. Does anyone know of a gem to assist with this? I’m aware of mtik (https://github.com/astounding/mtik/), but I’m not sure how much I’ll need to interface with the Mikrotik API depending on how much information is provided by RADIUS.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Chris