Step-by-step Wireless Billing Setup

Windows 7 Wi-Fi billing setup

Introduction

This article demonstrates how to setup a very simple Wi-Fi billing approach. You need the following hardware:
1. A server computer which is connected to the Internet (e.g. via ADSL modem).
2. An extra LAN (Ethernet) card.
3. Wireless router (Linksys WRT54G, D-Link DIR-300, etc.)
The idea is to make your server computer your Internet gateway computer, which means the computer with CuteHotspot Server installed is located between your ADSL router and Wi-Fi router:

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1. Plug in extra Ethernet card

Plug in your extra Ethernet card into your server PCI slot and let Windows detects the card and install the corresponding network card driver.
In this example Local Area Connection 1 (NIC1) is a primary card connected to the ADSL modem and Local Area Connection 2 (NIC2) is an extra network card:

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2. Enable Internet Connection Sharing

Open your NIC1 properties and enable Internet Connection Sharing. If you have more than 2 cards enabled, you have to select your NIC2 in the list:

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Open your NIC2 properties and change default IP address and subnet mask to
IP address = 192.168.0.2
Subnet mask = 255.255.0.0

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3. Setup Wi-Fi router

Connect your NIC2 with a cable to your router LAN port (not Internet port):

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Set the router IP address = 192.168.0.3. Switch the router into Access Point mode. Disable router DHCP.
Read more on how to setup your router model:
Linksys router setup (WRT54GL)
D-Link router setup (DIR-300)

4. Connect Wi-Fi laptop

Connect your Wi-Fi laptop to your wireless network and make sure that you can surf the web.

5. Setup CuteHotspot Server

Install CuteHotspot on your server computer.
Open CuteHotspot main menu > Tools > Internet..., select your NIC2 and enable the Wi-Fi billing option:

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6. Login Wi-Fi laptop

Try opening any website from your Wi-Fi laptop and get CuteHotspot login page. Type your customer/ticket login/password to start a session and continue browsing the web.

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