TrueCafe. Friendly Cyber Cafe Software.

General Info Get Started! Look Closer How to...

Administrator
    1. Terminals and Applications
    2. Pricing
    3. Customers
    4. Tickets (Time Codes)
    5. Pre-Paid and Post-Paid Sessions
    6. Point-of-Sale
    7. Inventory
    8. Instant Messenger (Chat)
    9. License Key Management
    10. Power Management
    11. Daily Report
    12. Traffic Calculation and URL Log
    13. Point-of-Sale. Receipt
    14. Options

Client
Reports
Web Reports
Printer Watcher
NComputing and Terminal Server Support
Wi-Fi hotspot support (wireless billing)
Database Cleanup
Language Editor
Database Workshop
Server Manager

Wi-Fi Hotspot Support (Wireless Billing)

Introduction

Wireless billing allows you to charge the customers of your cafe, club, shop, hotel, etc. when they connect their laptops, PDAs or any other mobile devices to your access point (Wi-Fi hotspot) and use the Internet to surf the web, read emails or chat via an instant messenger.

When a customer first try to surf the web, TrueCafe detects the connection and redirects it to the TrueCafe Wi-Fi billing login page. The customer uses his or her login information (printed e.g. on a ticket you sell, on a receipt of your cafe, etc.) to start a session. When the balance is over, TrueCafe blocks any connection from the corresponding customer terminal.

In order to provide the wireless billing you have to install TrueCafe Server on your Internet gateway computer (Windows OS is only supported). The gateway handles all network connections from your customer terminals.

We recommend the following approach... There are 2 network cards (NICs) in your Internet gateway computer - NIC1 and NIC2. NIC1 is connected to the Internet (WAN) via xDSL/ADSL, Cable, etc. NIC2 is connected to your LAN: Wi-Fi access point, hub, switch, etc.

Use Windows Internet Connection Sharing feature in order to make a bridge between NIC1 and NIC2.

Setup

Setup Internet Connection Sharing between the network cards on your Internet gateway (server) computer. Your WAN-connected network card (NIC1) has IP address usually provided by your Internet Service Provider. Your LAN-connected network card (NIC2) obtains some internal IP address, most often 192.168.0.1.

Your Wi-Fi access point uses DHCP to assign a dynamic IP to a customer's wireless laptop when it's connected. Access point gateway IP setting is your NIC2 IP address (192.168.0.1).

If you use a router in your LAN, it's gateway has to be your NIC2 IP address as well (192.168.0.1).

You don't have to add your wireless terminals on the TrueCafe server side manually. TrueCafe automatically adds a new terminal when a customer successfully logs in.

Use TrueCafe Wi-Fi options screen to select your NIC2 adapter and enable the Wi-Fi billing feature (main menu > Tools > Wi-Fi...):

Run!

When a customer comes to your cafe, shop, hotel, etc. and connects to your Wi-Fi access point, it assigns a new dynamic IP address to the customer's wireless laptop.

Then the customer tries to browse the web and since he or she hasn't been yet logged in, TrueCafe Server redirects him/her to the login page.

The customer logs in using a ticket purchased or a member account and then is able to surf the web.

On the TrueCafe server side you see that a new Wi-Fi terminal is added.

In order to view the session info such as the balance or time left in a web browser, the customer types your gateway computer name in the browser address bar (e.g. "gate" on the screenshot below).

The customer can log off from the session info page. You can also stop his session from the server side.

When the customer balance is over, TrueCafe automatically stops the customer session and blocks any connection from his wireless terminal.

Customize

If you have some HTML experience, you can customize your Wi-Fi login and session info pages. Edit the login.html and info.html files which are located in the TrueCafe\web folder.